These days, Erika Kullberg spends most of her time explaining personal finance to 21 million followers on platforms including YouTube, TikTok, Instagram, and her podcast. But back in 2016, freshly graduated from Georgetown Law, she was anything but a finance guru.
“The day I graduated, if you’d asked me how much I had in student loans, I couldn’t have answered,” says Kullberg. “It felt like Monopoly money when I was taking out the loans.”
Upon learning that she had $200,000 in student loans, she set a firm goal of paying off the entire balance in two years—and managed to pull it off early. The 34-year-old attorney has since become one of the most recognizable personal finance influencers on the internet, known for her tagline “I read the fine print so you don’t have to.”
“I went down a rabbit hole of trying to find and learn as much as I could about paying off debt, good money tips, all of that, and that’s what kicked off my passion for personal finance,” says Kullberg about her student debt odyssey.
Fortune interviewed Kullberg to get her best tips on how Americans can better manage their money in 2025, learn what she sees as the biggest mistakes the members of Gen Z are making with their finances, and gauge what the insatiable appetite for her content says about the state of personal finance education today. Let’s dive in.
How Gen Z Americans can better manage their money
Kullberg notes that too many young Americans learn nothing about personal finance in school, and probably don’t get much education on the topic at home, either.
“I grew up in a military family,” she says. “My dad was in the Air Force, my mom is Japanese. In Japanese culture it’s kind of improper to talk about money.”
She says that while she learned at home about the importance of saving money, there wasn’t much discussion of how to make your money work better for you.
“The other side of the equation is just as important,” Kullberg says. “How do you grow money? How can you do things like negotiating raises?”
One of the big recommendations Kullberg has for members of Gen Z comes down to a foundational concept of personal finance—budgeting.
“A lot of Gen Z flinch at the word budget because it seems restrictive, overbearing,” Kullberg says. “But I’ve come up with a fun way to make budgeting not so restrictive.”
Here’s what she recommends. Record all of your spending from the past 30 days on paper, grab highlighters in three different colors, then code your discretionary expenses as follows:
- Green for purchases that brought you joy.
- Yellow for purchases you’re lukewarm about or don’t really remember.
- Red for purchases that brought no happiness.
“For the red ones, get rid of those completely,” she says. “Green can stay, yellow you should question. That’s an easy way to budget.”
Another tip she offers for Gen Z consumers is to avoid buy now, pay later (BNPL) apps.
“If you’re buying something now and paying later, it’s probably something you shouldn’t be buying,” she says, adding that another issue is when consumers may sign up for a BNPL offer to make a purchase without fully understanding the fine print they’re agreeing to.
And, while the previous two recommendations focus on not overspending, Kullberg’s top piece of advice for young Americans is that you shouldn’t delay learning how to invest.
“Investing, the way it’s explained by a lot of people, makes it seem overly complicated,” she says. “I get why it’s intimidating, but the younger you start investing, the better it is—the more that money has time to compound.”
5 tips for Americans to succeed financially in 2025
Kullberg offers the following five tips to make your money work for you this year:
- Read the fine print for opportunities to save, for example through warranties.
- Negotiate everything from your credit card’s interest rate to your cable bill.
- Master credit card benefits and rewards, but always pay your balance in full.
- Set large financial goals, then break them into smaller goals.
- Make sure you have six to nine months of expenses in an emergency fund.
At the end of the day, Kullberg notes that a lot of good money management comes down to having peace of mind—for example, knowing the emergency fund is there in the event you lose your job, and knowing your money is compounding and growing thanks to smart investments.
“I think it’s impossible to disconnect money from emotions,” she says. “Everything about money is emotional.”
Why you shouldn’t trust every personal finance hack you see online
Social media can be a force for good when it comes to personal finance education, making information on investing, credit cards, debt management, and budgeting accessible to people who might not otherwise take an interest. At the same time, it’s crucial to maintain a sense of skepticism and evaluate your sources of information, since social media allows anyone to set themselves up as an expert on any topic—whether or not they have any expertise or credentials.
Karen North, a professor at USC Annenberg and a social media expert who's been studying the internet since the 1990s, notes that social media algorithms favor engagement, not accuracy. While Kullberg is an example of a credentialed expert, with a law degree from a respected university, North points out that not everyone who goes viral has the same training and expertise.
“The same app that brings you her legal and financial advice also suggests you eat Tide Pods,” North says, referring to the infamous Tide Pod challenge that raised widespread concerns in late 2017 and early 2018 about teenagers filming themselves biting into the brightly colored balls of laundry detergent.
North suggests that if you’re curious about the personal finance information you see on social media, research a creator’s LinkedIn profile and also look for a company website that may have a bio for them as an officer, employee, or board member.
“The first step is go see who is offering you that advice and make sure they have some level of credibility and expertise before you follow their advice on matters of law, finance, and other personal necessities,” she says.
North also advises using social media videos as more a starting point rather than a be-all-end-all source of information. If you see a hot financial tip on a TikTok or on Instagram Reels, for example, dig into the fine print with your own credit card company or bank. That way, you can verify if what you’re seeing is in fact correct and applicable to your own situation.
“You should never blindly do what somebody tells you to do—especially somebody you have no relationship with, which is different from having a doctor, lawyer, financial advisor, or accountant,” she says. “Those people are working for you and there’s accountability.”
Kullberg herself offers similar advice, suggesting that viewers scrutinize content creators’ LinkedIn profiles and also try to verify that they’re using a real name before putting much trust in them.
“I see things that are absolutely wrong or even scammy all the time in the space,” she says. “It’s up to the viewer of the content to vet and make sure they’re taking these tips from credible sources.”
The takeaway
Her website notes that she’s “the largest financial influencer in the world,” with followers subscribing on TikTok, Instagram, YouTube, Facebook, X (formerly Twitter) and to her podcast, “Erika Taught Me.” But Kullberg says the best measure of success is when she hears that her advice has helped her viewers.
“Every day, my team sends me a PDF of all the nice messages I’ve gotten from people—people saying they’ve used my tips and it’s had an impact on their lives,” she says.
And, when asked about what trends she’s watching as one of the most recognizable influencers in the personal finance space, Kullberg strikes an upbeat note.
“My favorite trend, I think, is very positive—it’s people being more positive about their finances,” she says. “I’ve seen people be more open about what they’re making, what they’re spending, what their budget looks like. The more we encourage financial transparency, the better off we all are.”
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