Tori Dunlap

Biography:

After saving six figures at age 25, Dunlap left her career in marketing and founded Her First $100K. According to Dunlap, the purpose was to “fight financial inequality by giving women actionable resources to better their money.” 

Now a multimillion-dollar business owner, Dunlap has collaborated with a variety of companies and written a New York Times bestseller while traveling the world to write and speak about personal finance, online businesses and confidence for women.

Why She’s a Top Money Expert:

Dunlap, who is internationally recognized as a money and career expert, shares easy-to-follow advice and tips in the personal finance space, specifically empowering women to make their best financial choices.

Q&A:

What are your best tips for increasing your savings?

Automate. Automate. Automate. Even if it’s just $20/month or a small percentage of your paycheck, we want this to happen on autopilot and “pay ourselves first.” And if this is something you’re already doing, increase it by 1% — you won’t feel it. You also need that money in a HYSA — it’s the easiest switch you can make to start earning more.

What advice would you give to someone who is new to investing?

Investing is like climbing a staircase — super easy, just that first step is 20 feet high. I know from research for my book ‘Financial Feminist‘ that the biggest reason women don’t invest is fear — fear of getting started, fear of making a mistake, fear of losing money. But truly, the worst choice you can make when it comes to investing is making no choice at all. You just need to get started. (I co-created a platform that helps guide you step by step!)

You’ve advocated for using credit cards over debit cards. What are some of the advantages of opting for credit cards?

SO MANY ADVANTAGES (so many, I did an entire podcast episode about them). TLDR: cash back/points (I’m literally flying business class to Europe using credit card points), easy reporting for fraud or double charges, airport lounge access, free TSA Precheck and Clear, and dozens of others.