Our Mission

Our mission at Meaning of Money is to make quality financial education available to everyone. We believe that everyone should have the opportunity to build financial well-being, where they feel in-control of their financial life and are free from constant financial anxiety. 

Our Founder

Hi! I am Shelitha Smodic, the founder and principal instructor at Meaning of Money. When I started my first job after college, I was completely unprepared for the number of financial decisions I had to make. When researching online, I was met with conflicting information and a lack of financial advisors that wanted to work with me due to my lack of assets. I became obsessed with educating myself on everything related to personal finance, and something interesting happened. Friends and family started reaching out to me for answers to their personal finance questions. Realizing that many people did not feel prepared to make financial decisions in their life set me on a new career path with a new mission: make quality financial education and advice available for everyone. 

Over the past eight years, I have worked toward this mission. I went back to school and became a certified financial planner. I obtained a master's degree in personal financial planning. I worked as a financial advisor and director of financial planning for an investment management firm focused on high net worth and ultra high net worth clients. All of these moves helped me learn the craft of financial planning but did not make this information more accessible to my own friends and family.  

I knew I needed to make a few more moves; thus, Meaning of Money was born, and my doctoral studies in personal financial planning commenced. Today, I aim to use all the knowledge I have gained to teach personal finance to individuals traditionally left behind in the financial industry and translate my research on financial well-being into actionable resources.  

Thank you so much for being a part of this journey!