WalletHacks.com was launched in 2015 by founder Jim Wang, with the mission of sharing the best practices for getting ahead financially and in life.
We do this by publishing completely free, high value, highly researched articles that give our visitors everything they need to succeed in an entertaining and engaging way. We spend hours of research on each piece and hope that it shows!
We love to hear from you – if you want to reach us please use our contact form. We love about you, what challenges you are facing, what successes you've experienced, and it is what drives us to create only the best work for you.
Here is a little more about the team:
Jim Wang, Founder
Jim Wang is the founding editor and writer of Best Wallet Hacks.
Jim started Best Wallet Hacks in 2015 as a way to share his best strategies for getting ahead financially and in life. As the father of four and husband to a very understanding, patient, and lovely wife; he always valued his time. After four kids, he knew the 24 hours of the day had appreciated.
Each one of us is busy. We would much rather spend time with friends and family, not on the phone haggling with a TV or cell phone rep about their contract. We would much rather be planning a vacation than checking our credit reports for minor errors.
So he built this blog with that in mind – what are the high leverage tasks we can do to improve our lives. If you want to learn more about his philosophy, start here.
Jim has a B.S. Computer Science & Economics from Carnegie Mellon University, an M.S. Information Technology – Software Engineering from Carnegie Mellon University, an M.B.A. from Carey Business School at Johns Hopkins University, and graduated with only around $35,000 in student loan debt!
Ashley Barnett, Blog Manager
Ashley Barnett was born with a passion for personal finance. Even as a kid she would read anything she could find about money. When personal finance blogs started popping up on the internet she jumped on board, starting a personal finance blog in 2008.
In 2013, she pivoted to freelance editing where she spends her days trying to create the best personal finance content on the internet.
She lives in Phoenix with her husband and two children and you can usually find her sitting in her backyard re-reading Harry Potter for the millionth time.
Colin Graves, Managing Editor
Colin is a blogger, freelance editor, and SEO consultant with a client list that includes some of the biggest voices in the personal finance and music industries. With more than 20 years of banking experience, he comes by his love for personal finance honestly.
Colin has an acute understanding of the financial challenges today’s families face and believes that improving your financial situation is less about numbers and more about mindset.
Raised in Ottawa and a Carleton University alumnus, Colin resides near Winnipeg, Manitoba, with his wife Laura and their three kids. When he’s not working on websites, Colin can be found planning epic road trips or pursuing his newfound love of gravel cycling.
Frequent Contributors
We rely on a great team of contributors to bring you different stories and perspectives to help you better manage your money.
Kevin Mercandante
Since 2009, Kevin Mercadante has been sharing his journey from a washed-up mortgage loan officer emerging from the Financial Meltdown as a contract/self-employed “slash worker” – accountant/blogger/freelance blog writer – on OutofYourRut.com. He offers career strategies, from dealing with under-employment to transitioning into self-employment, and provides “Alt-retirement strategies” for the vast majority who won’t retire to the beach as millionaires.
He also frequently discusses the big-picture trends that are putting the squeeze on the bottom 90%, offering workarounds and expense cutting tips to help readers carve out more money to save in their budgets – a.k.a., breaking the “savings barrier” and transitioning from debtor to saver.
Kevin has a B.S. in Accounting and Finance from Montclair State University.
>> See all of Kevin's articles
Laurie Blank
Laurie Blank is a blogger, freelance writer, and mother of four. She’s psyched about teaching others how to manage their money in a way that aligns with their values.
She's a real estate agent licensed in Minnesota and Wisconsin and has been freelance writing for the last six years.
She shares powerful insights on her blog, Cents and Order, that will show you how you can create passive income sources of your own.
Josh Patoka
After graduating in $50k with student loans in May 2008 from Virginia Military Institute with a B.A. International Studies and Political Science with a minor in Spanish (I studied abroad in Sevilla, Spain for 3 months), Josh decided to sell his soul for seven years by working in the transportation industry to get out of debt ASAP and focus on doing something else with a better work-life balance.
He is a father of three and has been writing about (almost) everything personal finance since 2015. You can also find him at his own blog Money Buffalo where he shares his personal experience of becoming debt-free (twice) and taking a 50%+ pay cut when he changed careers.
Today, Josh relishes the flexibility of being self-employed and debt-free and encourages others to pursue their dreams. Josh enjoys spending his free time reading books and spending time with his wife and three children.
Makenzie Wood
After realizing that the corporate grind just wasn’t for her, Makenzie made a bold plan with her husband: to pay off debt, become self-employed, and retire early. The daughter of a military officer and accountant, Makenzi had the grit (and a whole lot of help!) to make the impossible happen.
After conquering a mountain of debt, today Makenzi is a marketer turned self-employed writer. She aspires to retire early after paying off $250,000 of debt—while living the good life, of course.
She has a B.A. in Communication and Media Studies from Trinity University.
In addition to the frequent contributors above, we have had the pleasure of hosting other writers who are subject matter experts in their respective fields.
