MoneyStuffed

MoneyStuffed

MoneyStuffed is the brainchild of Liz and Elana. The two originally met at Rowan University in a C++ class. They’ve remained in contact after graduating for college, even after Liz moved to Florida (and then back north to Pennsylvania) and Elana moved first to upstate New York and then to Boston. After numerous debates and discussions in their own personal blogs about finance and credit issues, they decided to team up and create a website dedicated to the purpose. Their motivation is the lack of a coherant, online community for people to give and gain advice on personal finance issues. The goal of Money Stuffed is to be this community, an all-inclusive place for people to help each other out and air their issues.

Neither Liz nor Elana are professionals in the finance industry. They are everyday people who figured this out for themselves and would like to help others avoid mistakes they’ve made in the past.

Elana

Elana was born in Red Bank, NJ and grew up in Aberdeen, NJ. She initially went to school at Miami University of Ohio but decided to change the direction of her education and transferred to Rowan University, where she graduated with a Bachelor’s of Science in Computer Science in 1997. After college, she took a job with IBM in Endicott, NY programming in Lotus Notes. After three years with IBM, she moved to Boston, MA and took a job with a small dot com. The job lasted six months, and Elana moved on to another job, this time at a Cambridge, MA located consulting firm, where she has worked for nearly five years now.

Elana has been involved in many different extracurricular activities including Alpha Phi Omega and volunteering at various Japanese Animation (Animé) Conventions. She has run the operations and maintained finances for a major New England Japanese Animé Convention. She has also served on the Board of Directors of the non-profit New England Animé Society.

Elana achieved her Master’s in Business Administration with a concentration in Operations Systems and Operations Managment in January 2005 from Suffolk University.

Starting in 2000, after she lost her dot com job, Elana realized she wasn’t making the progress she needed on her debt. She read books, followed her mother’s advice, and nothing seemed to really work to lower her consumer debt. She was comfortably in a job, but living paycheck to paycheck. Finally, in early 2004, Elana took some drastic measures. She put together a drastic personal debt reduction plan, but realized she couldn’t do it without putting aside ‘fun’ money. She actively saves for vacations and at the same time is drastically reducing her debt, over 50% on the consumer debt in the first year alone!

Elana lives just outside Boston, MA with her fiancee, Carl, and her two cats, Eddy and Chii. She enjoys reading, doing geeky things like learning to program in PHP, listening to all sorts of music from Classical to Rock, hiking, the Red Sox, and the favorite spectator sport of Massachusetts, politics. She maintains her personal site and blog at CLAMP Campus Adventures.

Liz

Liz was born in Camden, NJ. She attended Rowan University and graduated in 1998 with a Bachelor’s of Science in Business Administration, specializing in Management Information Systems.

In September of 1998, Liz married and moved to Winter Park, FL. She became a PC/LAN Analyst at Walt Disney World and worked there until 2001. Both Liz and her husband were laid off from their jobs within months of one another when the job market weakened in Florida. After many unsuccessful months of searching for jobs, they decided to expand their job search northward where Liz’s husband found a new job in Pennsylvania. They then relocated and a few months later, Liz obtained a job at a local wine and spirits distributor where she has worked for over five years now.

During 2001, Liz realized how unprepared she was for the sudden loss of income. It was only after re-entering the job market that she vowed to get her financial house in order by starting a self-directed debt reduction plan, as well as starting to save for a home. This desire to take control of her financial life became the roots from which her personal finance and credit reporting interests grew.

Liz is now an official “money junkie”. She spends free time reading Bankrate, MSN Money and many other personal finance blogs.

Liz’s other interests include gardening, photography and politics in Pennsylvania.

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