The 15th Annual Plutus Awards ceremony was hosted on May 7, 2026 at the Plutus Impact Summit in Charlotte, N.C. the evening was hosted by Joe Saul-Sehy.
Each of our winners this year spans different media, channels, and projects, so we adopted a framework that doesn't rely on the categories of past years' awards.
Lynnette has been featured in 3 popular TV commercials and seen on more than 1,000 TV segments nationwide, including television appearances on Oprah, Dr. Phil, The Dr. Oz Show, The Steve Harvey Show, Good Morning America, The TODAY Show and many more.
A former financial news journalist, Lynnette now co-owns TheMoneyCoach.net LLC, a financial education company that she runs with her husband, Earl Cox.
Bill is a seasoned Emergency Medicine physician, practicing since 1992 in “The Pitt”. At home, he’s a proud husband, father of fraternal twin sons, and dog dad to two labradoodles.
At age 50, Bill had a financial wake‑up call. Despite a successful career, he realized he was financially illiterate, burned out, and stuck in an inflated paycheck‑to‑paycheck lifestyle. He didn’t know his net worth or what it would ultimately take to reach financial freedom and retire.
Code Blue!: Bill diagnosed himself with a severe case of “Rich, But Not Wealthy, Doctor Syndrome.” Like many late starters, he felt the weight of financial stress, regret, and shame. He paused, planned, and radically pivoted to rebuild his financial life.
A decade later, Bill reached financial independence and is semi‑retired from his day job in healthcare. He is a self-taught money expert and “weathcare” educator. He founded and co‑hosts the award‑winning podcast “Catching Up to FI”. He’s now a mentor, community builder, and voice for the millions of late starters who feel lost, behind, or alone. His mantra is “Let’s Catch Up to FI Together”, because together, virtually anything is possible!
Jackie not only broke the cycle of poverty but retired decades before others told her she could with a net worth of over $1 million. Quite an extraordinary accomplishment for someone who started late. She officially retired from her corporate job in 2019 and now focuses on following her big dream of creating a financially literate society.
Jackie openly rejects the taboo of talking about money by publicly sharing her own numbers. She is author of two books: “Money Letters 2 My Daughter” (2013) and “F.I.R.E. for Dummies” (Wiley, 2024), and co-hosts the award‑winning “Catching Up to FI” podcast. She has also been recognized with a Congressional Commendation for her accomplishments in the field of financial literacy from the US House of Representatives.
Her story has been featured on The Rachael Ray Show, CNBC, Market Watch, The New York Times, Forbes and many other major media platforms. Jackie holds the Certified Financial Planner® and Accredited Financial Counselor® credentials, and earned her master’s degree in financial planning & financial therapy from Kansas State University.
Joel Larsgaard launched How To Money with his best friend, Matt Altmix back in 2017 with a mission to increase financial literacy across the globe. 45+ million downloads later, the podcast is still growing strong, and How To Money has since branched out into a radio show, newsletter, and resourceful online website.
Joel graduated with a BS in Communications from Kennesaw State University, then produced The Clark Howard Show for 14 years. With his deep knowledge of anything personal finance and investing related, Joel’s goal is to help individuals and families change their future by developing solid money habits. The HTM mission is to ensure that people have the confidence and tools so they can get out of debt, grow wealth, and achieve financial freedom.
Recently, Joel scored a seat on the Forbes Advisory Board – yep, Forbes, as in the renowned media empire that covers the world’s wealthiest individuals and offers insights on entrepreneurship, financial tools, and industry trends. Joel cares deeply about objective news coverage, and making sure everyone has the best tools and resources to make informed financial decisions.
Matt Altmix is the mastermind behind the mic on the How To Money podcast, which he created with his best friend, Joel in 2017. With over 45 million podcast downloads (and counting!) Matt has become a go-to guru for all things personal finance.
When it comes to crunching numbers and technical analytics, Matt’s brain kind of works like a robot. He’s really good at weighing different debt payoff strategies, deciphering insurance options, evaluating complex investments, and calculating anything related to real estate.
But he’s not all just about numbers… Somewhere inside Matt is a beating human heart! And that heart wants to help people be happy and live their best life, in addition to being financially secure. Because what’s the point of stacking cash if you’re not simultaneously living it up?!
Outside the world of finance, Matt’s a family man with an awesome wife and four active kiddos. When he’s not busy dad-ing, you can find him biking to his local CrossFit, pouring into his school and church communities, or hiking his next 14er with his wife.
Kevin L. Matthews II is a number one bestselling author, former financial advisor, and native of Tulsa, Oklahoma. He has helped hundreds of individuals plan for their retirement in addition to managing more than $140 million in assets during his advisory career. By 2017, he was named one of the Top 100 Most Influential Financial Advisors by Investopedia. Kevin launched BuildingBread in 2010, to inspire millennials to set, simplify, and achieve any financial goal. Kevin regularly speaks to young adults across the country and has been featured in several media publications and productions includingThe Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, Forbes, Black Enterprise, and many others.
Jannese Torres-Rodriguez is a nationally-acclaimed Latina Money Expert, Educator, Speaker, Writer and Business Coach. She became an accidental entrepreneur after a job loss led her to create a successful Latin food blog, Delish D’Lites. Now, she helps her clients and listeners build successful online businesses that allow them to pursue financial independence and freedom. Jannese is on a mission to educate marginalized communities on topics like entrepreneurship, investing, and building generational wealth through her personal finance podcast, “Yo Quiero Dinero.”
Jim Wang is a thirty-something father of three who has been featured in the New York Times, Baltimore Sun, Entrepreneur, and Marketplace Money. He shares his best strategies for getting ahead financially and in life on his personal finance blog Wallet Hacks.
Justin is an Accredited Financial Counselor® and co-founder of Price of Avocado Toast, a platform dedicated to redefining financial wellness. With a belief that money should be a tool for living a life aligned with your values, Justin helps people break free from the stress and shame often tied to personal finance.
Passionate about debt freedom, mindful spending, and creating a financial life that feels good, Justin encourages a balanced approach to money. He challenges the restrictive, all-or-nothing mindset that dominates personal finance and instead focuses on long-term sustainability, flexibility, and community support.
Justin’s goal is to empower others to take control of their money with confidence, clarity, and without guilt. This work is centered on one core belief: financial wellness isn’t about perfection; it’s about progress. Every step in the right direction is a step in the right direction.
After blowing through a $600,000 lawsuit payout and racking up over $220,000 worth of debt in three and a half years, they got serious about changing the narrative they had created for their lives. Within 18 months, they had paid off over $132,000 of debt their debt and restarted their wealth journey.
During this period, they began their podcast Price of Avocado Toast. Their focus has been on having open and honest money conversations with others to help remove the stigmas and shame around finances. The hope is that these conversations enlighten the younger versions of themselves and save them from the pitfalls Haley and Justin fell into.
In 2021, Haley began the financial counseling branch of Price of Avocado Toast. She brought Justin onto the team in 2023 and together they have helped hundreds of clients tackle over $5M of debt.
Ellyce Fulmore is a queer and neurodivergent financial educator, content creator, author and the founder of Queerd Co., a financial literacy company. Her approach to financial literacy goes beyond the conventional, focusing on the intersectionality of identities and lived experiences. Ellyce is passionate about helping her online community of over half a million find the right tools, strategies and perspective to create a life where financial stability and joy coexist. Ellyce’s book Keeping Finance Personal: ditch the “Shoulds” and the Shame and Rewrite Your Money Story is available now.
I love helping individuals find reliable answers to their credit, personal finance, and small business financial questions.
Known as an expert on credit and small business topics, I have been featured in over 4,500 news interviews, including The Today Show, The New York Times, and USA Today.
I've testified before Congress on consumer credit legislation and answered more than 10,000 credit questions online.
As a financial writer, I've authored hundreds of articles for various magazines and websites and written or co-authored six books.
With extensive experience as an educator and speaker, I served as education director for Nav and Credit.com, where I helped individuals and business owners navigate complex credit issues.
I am the author of Mom and Dad, We Need to Talk: How to Have Essential Conversations With Your Parents About Their Finances. I also am an award-winning journalist with 20 years of experience writing about personal finance.
My work has appeared in Forbes, Kiplinger’s Personal Finance, Chicago Tribune, MSN, Yahoo and many, more print and online publications.
Dr. Preston Cherry is a Houston-based, flat-fee fiduciary financial advisor and founder of Concurrent Wealth Management, helping high-income Gen X professionals, business owners, and oil & gas executives navigate retirement, taxes, equity compensation, and major financial decisions through comprehensive financial planning and integrated investment management.
Based in Houston and serving clients nationwide, he helps clients align financial strategy with long-term flexibility, confidence, and well-being through comprehensive financial planning designed around life transitions, complex decisions, and long-term financial success.
Gina Zakaria (known as the Saving Whiz to her 5 million+ followers on social media) is a personal finance educator and savings expert. She founded Saving Whiz after learning many money lessons the hard way as she paid off her six figures of debt with her husband and achieved financial freedom. Saving Whiz is a money education platform specifically designed to share simple strategies to help women take charge of their finances the easy way.
Through her small-step approach, she breaks down complex money topics into simple, actionable steps that empower women (and some men) to make financial progress, without sacrificing their lifestyle. Gina is passionate about teaching others how to comfortably maximize on life while saving money.
She's been in the money space for over 20 years and has been featured in Forbes, Money Magazine, Good Morning America, NBC Today, and other prominent personal finance sites.
Dr. Darla Bishop is a sought-after speaker, professor and author dedicated to helping students, faculty, and staff master financial wellness.
As a professor of health policy, she understands the direct impact financial stress has on student success and long-term well-being. Through engaging keynotes and interactive workshops, Dr. Bishop equips audiences with practical strategies for financial confidence, career readiness, and wealth-building.
Rishi Vamdatt founded Easy Peasy Finance at age 8 after noticing that children rarely receive personal finance education. Most resources were built for adults, and he believed explaining money to kids in a simple way could help them avoid expensive mistakes later. What started as a small YouTube channel has become one of the largest youth-focused financial literacy platforms in the world.
Over 8+ years, Rishi has produced 1,300+ videos, authored 4 books, and dedicated over 5,000 hours to financial education – reaching 6.5 million+ views across 193 countries. He earned a Certificate in Financial Planning from NYU, and made history by passing the CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER® (CFP®) exam at age 16. He is believed to be the youngest person in history to achieve this milestone.
Rishi is a published author, and has been featured by CBS News, Kiplinger magazine, Fidelity, NHK Japan, SiriusXM Canada, and international media across Europe and Asia. He has also appeared as a guest on numerous podcasts and radio shows since age 11, including ChooseFI and NGPF.
Naseema is the founder of Financially Intentional, a platform about personal finance and living life intentionally. She is also the host of the Nurses on Fire Podcast, where she introduces nurses to the world of financial independence. She discusses how taking control of her finances has enabled her to overcome bankruptcy, divorce, and break the cycle of living paycheck to paycheck. She shares her lessons along her path to help others benefit from the freedoms of financial independence.
Outside of encouraging people to get their financial act together, Naseema is a mother of two girls and Labor and Delivery Nurse. Though making six figures for years, she struggled with money. Finally realizing she couldn't out-earn her financial ignorance, she knew she had to make some changes. By shifting her mindset around money, being consistent and intentional, She has paid off $1 million in debt and grew a six figure net worth in three years, without living in deprivation.
Tiffany “The Budgetnista” Aliche, is an award-winning teacher of financial education, America’s favorite, personal financial educator, and author of the New York Times Bestselling book, Get Good with Money. The Budgetnista is also an Amazon #1 bestselling author of The One Week Budget and the Live Richer Challenge series and most recently, a children's book, Happy Birthday Mali More.
Alissa Krasner Maizes, Esq., CFP®, is the Founder of Amplify My Wealth, a fee-only fiduciary financial planner, retirement planning consultant, and financial educator. She is also the winner of the 14th Annual Plutus Award for Best Financial Advisor Financial Literacy Content Creator.
With a background in law and years of hands-on experience guiding individuals, families, and organizations, Alissa is known for making complex financial topics accessible and actionable. She provides financial guidance to the clients of her firm, Amplify My Wealth, and offers pro bono advising through the nonprofit Savvy Ladies.
As a fiduciary, Alissa places her clients’ needs first- eliminating conflicts of interest and the traditional “waiting game” for expert financial advice.
Her work focuses on helping high earners, women, and young professionals and entrepreneurs build financial confidence and make informed decisions that support the lives they want to live.
Brian Page is the founder of Modern Husbands, a platform dedicated to helping couples manage both financial and home responsibilities as a cohesive team. He holds a master’s degree in education and is certified as both an Accredited Financial Counselor® and a Fair Play Certified® facilitator.
Paula Pant is the founder of the Afford Anything podcast, a leading business, economics and personal finance show with more than 30 million downloads and 3,000 reviews.
She’s a former newspaper reporter and an alumnus of the prestigious Knight-Bagehot Fellowship in Business and Economic Journalism at Columbia University.
She starred in the Netflix documentary Get Smart with Money, for which she was also a consulting producer.
She is the founder of AffordAnything.com, a personal finance and financial independence website that draws 2.5 million annual pageviews and holds more than 78,000 email subscribers.
Steve Stewart edits podcasts for indie podcasters in the personal finance and investing genre.
He created the Podcast Editors Club Facebook group in January 2017 because he wanted to learn from others who work on the post-production side of podcasting. Today, there are nearly 10,000 members who either edit for themselves or for other people.
Steve lives in a sleepy town at the base of the Sangre de Cristo Mountains, volunteers time with the county’s fire mitigation team, and occasionally gives the sermon at his church.
Nick Loper helps people earn money outside of their day job. He’s an author, online entrepreneur, and host of the award winning Side Hustle Show podcast, which features new part-time business ideas each week. As Chief Side Hustler at SideHustleNation.com, he loves deconstructing the tactics and strategies behind building extra income streams.
Hi, I’m Bob Lai from Vancouver Canada. Tawcan.com is a Canadian personal finance and dividend investing blog dedicated to chronicling my quest for joyful life and financial independence. My wife and I started our financial independence retire early journey in 2011 after a financial epiphany.
We realized that we needed to take charge of our finances. By investing in US and Canadian dividend stocks, we are aiming to achieve financial independence in our 40s and living off dividends.
Jamila Souffrant is the founder of Journey to Launch and the host of an award-nominated podcast of the same name, which has amassed nearly 3 million downloads and has been featured in the New York Times and Buzzfeed. Jamila’s advice and story has been told in Business Insider, Essence, Refinery29, Money, Yahoo! Finance, as well as on CNBC andCBS. She lives in Brooklyn with her husband Woody and three children.
Paulette Perhach is a writer, writing coach, and speaker whose work regularly appears in The New York Times. Her essays have been published in Vox, Elle, The Washington Post, Slate, and more. Her viral essay “A Story of a Fuck Off Fund” was anthologized in The Future is Feminist (Chronicle Books) alongside work by Roxane Gay and Mindy Kaling.
She is the author of Welcome to the Writer’s Life (Sasquatch Books/Penguin Random House), which was selected by Poets & Writers as one of the Best Books for Writers. She coaches writers, leads meditation-and-writing sessions through A Very Important Meeting, and speaks on creativity, craft, and building a writing life.
Paulette was a Jack Straw Fellow in 2021 and shared the Washington State Book Award for her contribution to Alone Together. She lives in New York and is completing her first novel.
On a global mission to make the financial industry accessible for all, Vivian Tu is a former Wall Street trader turned expert, public speaker, host, entrepreneur, New York Times bestselling author and the founder and CEO of the multi-platform brand, Your Rich BFF. She launched Your Rich BFF in January 2021 as a passion project to make personal finance accessible to non-experts and marginalized communities. Her approachable take on financial literacy has earned her 8M+ followers, honors on Forbes’ “30 Under 30” (2023) and “Top Creators” (2022, 2023) lists, and the “Digital Influencer of the Year” Award at the esteemed 2024 Unforgettable Gala honoring Asian and Pacific Islander achievements in entertainment.
Vivian expanded her reach beyond social media with the launch of Networth and Chill in March 2023, a groundbreaking podcast that immediately topped the Business charts. In October 2024, Business Insider announced her partnership with Vox Media and PS (formerly PopSugar) for the show’s second season, which premiered on October 9th and introduced video content on Apple, Spotify, YouTube, TikTok, and Instagram. This season, Vivian continues to tackle complicated financial topics such as buying a home in today’s market, addresses taboo money questions, and hosts celebrity guests and finance experts to share their financial tips, tricks, and insights. On January 7th, Networth and Chill was nominated in the “Best Business + Finance” category for this year’s iHeartPodcast Awards, set to take place on March 10th at SXSW.
Stefanie O’Connell is an award-winning writer covering ambition, money and power with bylines in The Guardian, Slate, Bloomberg, CNBC, Fast Company, MarketWatch, Glamour UK, Newsweek, USA Today and Business Insider. She also wrote, hosted and co-produced the WEBBY award-winning podcast “Money Confidential” for REAL SIMPLE magazine.
Her book The Ambition Penalty: How Corporate Culture Tells Women to Step Up — and Then Pushes Them Down (May 2026, Basic Venture) is an essential guide to dismantling the hidden forces that hold women back, burn them out & make us all pay.
With over 100,000 followers across her social media channels and Too Ambitious newsletter, Stefanie uses data to expose how power and gender collide to keep women “in their place.” And shows how liberating women’s ambitions can liberate us all.
Angela Rozmynis a tree-hugging, traveling, cooking millennial looking to reach financial independence by her mid-40s. She loves to garden, cook, hike, camp, run, read, and explore while lightening her impact on the planet in everything she does. She’s a mama to one awesome five-year-old son and has been married since she was just twenty-one. She works as a LEED AP for a company that builds green, affordable communities in urban areas. She has no plans to quit but is still very much focused on financial independence because it will give her the option to say “I want to be here,” not “I have to be.”
Dr. Regina Mooreis a community pharmacist by background, an innovator at heart, and a lifelong advocate. She focuses on promoting and advocating for the psychedelic medicine space, including a 10+ year hobby around mycology. She also focuses on cancer advocacy as the parent of a cancer patient, holistic whole family care, combating financial toxicity, and mental health support (which is a bridge to her psychedelics interest). She is also interested in digital health and how pharmacists will expand their roles in this revolutionary age. On her website, The Frugal Pharmacist, she often touches on topics that target pharmacists and healthcare providers, though most of her content is applicable to anyone. Especially working mothers. She endeavors to enjoy her life, be a great mom, decrease her stress, maintain the health of herself and her family, try to learn to do yoga on her own at home, be better about mindfulness, make real friends as an adult (it’s hard), try to wean herself from so much technology, spend more time on her hobbies and think less about work. You know, all the regular stuff!
Corey Fick is a prominent financial independence content creator, money coach, and the co-founder of The Fioneers, a platform dedicated to helping people build financial freedom and design lives they love through the concept of "Slow FI" and "Coast FIRE." Alongside his wife, Jessica Fick, Corey teaches that financial independence isn't just about a far-off retirement date, but about using financial milestone checkpoints to gain freedom along the way.
Jess from The Fioneers is a blogger focused on financial independence and lifestyle design who promotes mindful and intentional living. As an entrepreneur, speaker, and coach, she empowers people to build a life they love now instead of waiting for FI.
Sandy Smithhas been a personal finance blogger since January 1, 2009, when she resolved to get out of debt or die trying. No, no, that was 50 Cent. At age 29 she was frankly tired of paying living paycheck-to-paycheck and feeling as if she would never get ahead financially. Her blog,Yes I Am Cheap, was born out of sheer frustration with the hope of paying down a $120,000 debt much faster than the average debtor without filing for bankruptcy.
Joe Saul-Sehy is a prominent personal finance expert, author, and media personality best known as the creator and co-host of the award-winning Stacking Benjamins podcast. Renowned for making financial literacy engaging and accessible, his career spans from professional wealth management to prominent roles in financial journalism and podcast production.
Enterprise Awards recognize products and services separately from people and their publications. A historical win does not automatically make something a current recommendation.
Voting is now open for the 15th Annual Plutus Awards through August. The awards honor independent financial content across blogs, podcasts, videos, and more, with four new People’s Choice categories by format. Fans can vote for or nominate creators and financial products at https://plut.im/vote.
