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About FinanceBuzz

We're on a mission to democratize personal finance.

We believe that information = freedom, especially when it comes to money. Whether you're planning for retirement, working to reduce your debt, or wanting to travel more, we believe that anyone, regardless of current income, can achieve financial independence if they have the right knowledge.

Our community represents a wide range of personal finance topics across multiple platforms to make it easier for people to find information and navigate financial products. Our friendly, no-nonsense approach educates and empowers our audience to take action on their personal finance goals.

No matter how you define financial success and independence, we share knowledge to help you get there.

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While you're here, don't miss subscribing to our personal finance newsletter, Worthy. Don't just take our word for it, Time chose Worthy as one of its top 13 Personal Finance Newsletters to Subscribe to in 2024.

Quick facts about us

Headquartered in Delray Beach, Florida, but we embrace a remote workstyle.

You can find our team members in 16 states and six countries.

Over 120 million people visit FinanceBuzz annually.

More than 120 expert writers contribute to our website.

We love our active Facebook community — FBZ Elite Travel & Points and Real Estate Investors.

You can call us "FBZ" for short. (We do.)

Our founders

Greg Van Horn

Founder & CEO

Christine Yaged

Founder & Chief Marketing Officer

Ryan Van Horn

Founder & Chief Technology Officer

When Greg Van Horn, Christine Yaged, and Ryan Van Horn created Launch Potato, the parent company of FinanceBuzz, they wanted to build a technology-first digital media company with a portfolio of brands that could appeal to all types of readers — no matter where they were in their financial journey.

In 2016, two years after Launch Potato’s founding, they committed to building FinanceBuzz into a trusted brand and resource that would span across personal finance topics. Greg was motivated to make a difference when he was buying his first house and couldn’t find easily digestible information to guide him. Christine loved credit card points and travel and wanted to help others take advantage of credit card reward points. Ryan was inspired by what he’d learned about investing in different markets and real estate and thought resources should be free and more accessible.

Together, they’ve built FinanceBuzz into a team of inspiring, ambitious humans who want to help others on their journey toward financial independence.

Editorial leadership team

Tracy Odell

SVP, Content Brands

Tracy leads editorial and business operations for Launch Potato content brands, including FinanceBuzz.

Prior to joining Launch Potato in 2019, Tracy held leadership roles at Student Loan Hero (acquired by LendingTree), Meredith Corporation (GM of online lifestyle brands), and CafeMedia (part of the founding team at CafeMom). She has over 20 years of content and brand experience across the personal finance, lifestyle, and parenting verticals.

Tracy earned her B.A. in Professional Writing from Carnegie Mellon University. Outside of work, she enjoys traveling with her family (using credit card points, of course), watching the latest reality TV nonsense, and hitting some balls at tennis/pickleball courts.

Three words to describe my investing style:
ETFs all day

Three words to describe my budgeting style:
Conservative not restrictive

Biggest financial lesson I’ve learned:
Live within your means

Becca Borawski Jenkins

Senior Director, Content Strategy

Becca oversees all content creation for the Launch Potato brands, including FinanceBuzz.

Becca earned an M.F.A. in Cinema-Television Production from the University of Southern California, and has spent the last 20 years producing content in video and written form. She spent the first part of her editorial career building health and fitness brands, and now focuses on personal finance. Becca's expertise has appeared on websites like Bankrate, Realtor.com, The Muse, HuffPost, Greatist, and many more.

Becca spent five years as a full-time RVer traveling the United States, but now spends half the year living in an actual house in the Black Hills of South Dakota and chases good weather for the remainder of the year.

Three words to describe my investing style:
Dollar-cost averaging

Three words to describe my budgeting style:
Optimize for experience

Biggest financial lesson I’ve learned:
It’s far better to deal with debt problems head-on than to ignore them.

Chris Lewis

Associate Director, Digital PR

Chris oversees the creation of original data-driven content, press relations, and off-page SEO efforts for the Launch Potato brands, including FinanceBuzz.

With nearly a decade in content marketing and SEO, Chris is an expert in all things data visualization, data storytelling, content strategy, and link-building across a variety of verticals. He is also obsessed with credit card points and hotel rewards.

Chris earned his M.S. in Data Science from the University of Miami, and is based in Miami, FL. Outside of work, Chris is an avid sneakerhead, a Costco aficionado, and is unreachable on the weekends during football season.

Three words to describe my investing style:
Don’t touch it

Three words to describe my budgeting style:
Just be reasonable

Biggest financial lesson I’ve learned:
Never cosign a loan

Editorial guidelines

Editorial integrity is vitally important to creating exceptional content and fulfilling the FinanceBuzz mission. Our editorial team is committed to providing accurate and in-depth reviews and information to help you make financial decisions with confidence. To that end, we follow a set of key principles to preserve our expert team’s judgment and maintain editorial independence.

Key principles for our content

  • We maintain a team of subject matter experts who have personal experience with financial products. All of the writers and editors who produce FinanceBuzz content have expertise in various financial verticals and hold decades of cumulative experience.
  • Our content goes through a rigorous fact-checking process before publishing to ensure accuracy to the best of our ability.
  • We intensively research all products and services we review, and our team members personally use a wide array of financial products.
  • Our product rankings and scores are based on objective measurements and product features as well as expert opinions from our editorial team.
  • We regularly review and update content to ensure accuracy and usefulness.
  • Our team is held to an editorial independence policy that disallows outside influence on our opinions and recommendations and prevents our editorial team members from working directly with partner brands.

Key principles for partnerships

  • We are transparent with how we make money and FinanceBuzz partnerships do not influence our editorial opinions or product ratings.
  • Partners are not able to review or request changes to our content except in the cases of factual errors or compliance reasons.
  • We do work with partners to ensure our content is accurate and includes any required legal language and disclaimers. Financial products are highly regulated, and partners provide feedback to meet compliance standards.

We aim to make sure everything on our site is up-to-date and accurate as of the publishing date, but we cannot guarantee we haven't missed something. It's the reader's responsibility to double-check all information before making any financial decision.

If you spot something that looks wrong, please let us know so we can correct it.

Product review guidelines

We know that readers don’t come to reviews looking for sales pitches. Our product reviews are never structured as a ploy to get readers to buy or try something, but rather as a thorough evaluation that accounts for potential user needs and offers reasonable suggestions based on our expertise. We encourage our readers to find solutions that meet their personal needs.

Our editors and writers

Melinda Sineriz

Lead Editor

Melinda has over a decade of personal finance content experience, with articles appearing in publications like Business Insider and Bizfluent. They have a B.A. in English from Miami University (the one in Ohio) and a master’s degree in teaching from Bard College.

Melinda currently resides in Toledo, Ohio, with an abundance of cats and dogs. They enjoy scary movies and books and hope to (finally) finish writing a novel at some point.

Three words to describe my investing style:
Set and forget

Three words to describe my budgeting style:
Everything in moderation

Biggest financial lesson I’ve learned:
Never cosign a loan

Michael Kurko

Editor

Michael earned a B.A. in English Literature from Hartwick College and has over 15 years of experience in producing and editing content for publications across many industries. His work has been featured on numerous sites, such as Fit Small Business, Investopedia, The Balance, U.S. News, and Forbes.

Michael has been living in Austin, Texas for the last 20 years and is seriously considering moving to a cooler climate. When he’s not trying to cool off, he’s working on his fantasy novels.

Three words to describe my investing style:
Long-term growth

Three words to describe my budgeting style:
Readjust and reassess

Biggest financial lesson I’ve learned:
Start learning about money early

Amanda Machado

Associate Editor

With a B.A. in Language and Literary Studies from the Federal University of Minas Gerais, Amanda started her career as a translator and quickly became a content creator in the fields of language, travel, real estate, and business for companies such as Cirque du Soleil and Cris Brooks Realty.

You are likely to find Amanda at a cozy coffee shop working on her laptop or reading while Milo (her adorable golden retriever) sits by her side like a good boy.

Three words to describe my investing style:
Set and forget

Three words to describe my budgeting style:
Balance is key

Biggest financial lesson I’ve learned:
You can either ruin or build up your finances. It’s ultimately up to you

Stephanie Trejos

Associate Editor

Stephanie earned a B.A. in English: Editing, Writing, and Media and in Media Communications Studies from Florida State University. She started her editing career specializing in financial crime, including fraud and cybersecurity, and has been editing financial content for over five years.

Stephanie is based in Austin, Texas, where she enjoys watching the latest movies, exploring the local food scene, and spending time with her cat.

Three words to describe my investing style:
Set and forget

Three words to describe my budgeting style:
Wants vs. needs

Biggest financial lesson I’ve learned:
Financial literacy classes should be universal

Andrea Basse

Senior Editor, Contributors

Andrea Basse is a Senior Editor, Contributors for FinanceBuzz. She holds a B.S. in Public Relations from the University of Florida, and she’s helped produce content for multiple financial services companies over the last few years — including Goldman Sachs and Discover — to help their consumers make smart financial decisions.

Andrea lives in South Florida with her husband and two precocious daughters. She enjoys trying new recipes and is always down for a game of Trivial Pursuit.

Three words to describe my investing style:
Let it be

Three words to describe my budgeting style:
Everything in moderation

Biggest financial lesson I’ve learned:
It’s never too late to regain control of your finances and enjoy a less stressful life

Josh Koebert

Senior Content Marketer

Josh is an experienced content marketer who has had his work featured on CNN, ESPN, Sports Illustrated, the Los Angeles Times, and many more prestigious publications. He has a degree in Sports Communication from Bradley University, and before entering the world of content marketing he worked in broadcast and public relations roles for his alma mater, teams in Minor and Major League Baseball, and NBC Sports for Super Bowl XLVI.

Josh lives in Tampa, Florida, with his wife and two children. His free time is spent building Lego sets, relaxing at the beach, and exploring one of the many different theme parks his family has annual passes for.

Three words to describe my investing style:
Diversify, diversify, diversify

Three words to describe my budgeting style:
Wants vs. needs

Biggest financial lesson I’ve learned:
Make saving and contributing to investments an automatic part of your financial routine

See all of our writers >

Get in touch with us

For general inquiries, contact:

help@financebuzz.com

For press inquiries, write to us at:

press@financebuzz.com

You can view our most recent press here.

For sales and partnership inquiries, contact:

sales@financebuzz.com

If you prefer snail mail, our address is:

111 E. Atlantic Ave., Suite 200
Delray Beach, FL 33444

Or call our Toll-free number at (888) 478-1688

Interested in working at FinanceBuzz? See our current openings.