Everything We Published on The Purse in August 2026

This week, I paid the CFP Board $968 to make things official.

Please now refer to me as Lindsey Stanberry, CFP®.

CFP, for the uninitiated, stands for CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER®. And yes, the capital letters and ® sign are necessary. The CFP Board is very particular about this. It’s heavily tested on the exam!

This marks the end of nearly three years of work and many thousands of dollars spent on education. At some point, I’ll do an official What It Cost Me. But as with all big expenses, the toll I paid was more than just monetary. It’s no easy thing to go back to school in your 40s. My brain is exhausted.

In July, about a week before I took the exam, I was having the absolute worst day. And to add insult to injury, I couldn’t get the code to work to get into my coworking space. I was standing there, in the July heat, iced coffee in hand, trying not to have a total meltdown. Finally, some nice guy from my office came up the front steps, swiftly entered his code, and let us both in.

I promptly launched into a diatribe about how stressed I was studying for this huge exam. (This was the first conversation I’ve ever had with this poor man—he was not prepared for a Lindsey-level rant.)

“That’s cool,” he said as we exited the elevator. “Why are you getting your CFP?”

It’s a question that I’m asked all the time. And the answer might surprise you. I don’t plan to take on clients—at least not at this juncture. (Never say never!)

I got my CFP so people would take me more seriously.

Years ago, when I published the Money Diaries book, the feedback we heard from many media outlets was that I wasn’t a true financial expert because I wasn’t a certified financial planner and I never worked on Wall Street. (Never mind that Dave Ramsey is not a CFP either.) When I did do press, they often paired me with a CFP who would offer advice or context for whatever we were talking about during the TV segment.

Of course, a lot has changed in the past eight years. Plenty of so-called finfluencers on TikTok and Instagram are tapped by major media outlets to share their advice all the time. And even before I took the CFP exam this summer, I had arguably more experience than many of them thanks to all the knowledge I accumulated as a personal finance editor at Refinery29, CNBC, and Fortune. (Guys, I really know my shit!)

But here’s the thing: In this world where anyone can claim to be an expert, these kinds of distinguishing marks matter more than ever. I did the work. I put in the hours. I passed a 170-question, six-hour, multiple-choice exam. I’m pretty proud of myself. It was really hard!

But now I feel restless.

Below, in the behind-the-scenes section of this newsletter, I share a bit about how I’ve been feeling jealous lately. I think one of the reasons why is because I know just how good and special The Purse is. And with this big certification behind me (and those awesome three letters after my name), I’m ready to see our star power grow.

Believe it or not, you can help. If you love The Purse, please share it with your friends, family, and colleagues. Please. We need our biggest fans to be our biggest growth drivers!

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Yeah, I’m very biased, but I don’t know of another newsletter out there that tackles personal finance the way we do. And I’m so excited about what Alicia and I are planning next!

We’re working on ways to make The Purse even more useful. And in anticipation of all this fun and helpful new content, we’re offering a 10% discount on annual subscriptions for the month of September.

Get The Purse for 10% off!

If you need another reminder of all the great work we’re doing, check out the highlights from August. So many fun reads here!

August 2026 on The Purse

Most helpful:

It’s a tie, in my opinion. We were lucky to have a wonderful paid partnership with Poshmark, and Alicia wrote a super handy guide to buying clothes secondhand on the app.

And then in 30-Something, she shared how she’s planning to level up her finances now that she’s got the basics (pretty much) mastered. We heard from a lot of readers that they want to learn more about brokerage accounts, so stay tuned for some articles and advice on that!

Most underrated:

We loved this edition of Meal Plan from a 30-something in Tampa, Florida, who has a really admirable meal-planning routine, but it didn’t get as much reader love as past editions. There are a few recipes she recommends that I’ve bookmarked for future dinners! (Just a reminder: Paid subscribers get access to the whole Meal Plan archive, and they’re all gold!)

Most inspiring:

Alicia wrote about AOC’s decision to share her egg-freezing journey on Instagram. I especially appreciate that AOC is busting through two taboos with her videos: 1) women’s fertility and 2) the cost of these types of treatments, which are often not covered by insurance. AOC continues to bring issues around women’s health to the forefront of the national conversation, and she doesn’t even flinch at the blow back. She’s amazing!

Most popular:

Far and away, the most popular post on our site in August was Home Economics No. 58, featuring a family of four living in Connecticut on a $215,000 joint salary. The writer and her husband also received $38,000 a year in monetary gifts from her mother-in-law. I know she was nervous to share this detail, but so many of the comments as well as emails I received were from people who said they could relate to this entry.

Best comment section:

Sometimes the comment sections on pay-walled editions of Home Economics can be pretty quiet. But that’s not the case with No. 59. And really, all the notes that readers left for the writer—an almost-40-year-old single, childfree social worker in Vermont living on $60,000 a year—will leave you feeling warm and fuzzy.

(Are you a social worker reading The Purse, earning $60k or less a year? Reply to this email with a link to your LinkedIn profile, and we’ll give you a one-month paid subscription to The Purse so you can enjoy this post.)

It was sort of a sleepy August, and I’m not mad about that!

Alicia went to Maine, and I went to Cape Cod. I continue to watch a lot of Red Sox games. (I do not want to talk about the Yankees series!) We celebrated my dad’s birthday with a jazz show at Smoke. (Freddy’s first jazz show!) I had a few really great coffee catchups with Priya Malani (Stash Wealth), publicist extraordinaire Lilly O’Leary, and investor Joan Cheng, and these have inspired a lot of brainstorming around potential projects.

Now that I’ve finished with school, I feel like I want to get out more. If you have a cool event coming up, invite me! I cleaned out my closet last weekend, and now I’m determined to start wearing all my nice clothes!

Coming up in September:

Who else is both ready for their kids to go back to school and also feeling a little nervous??? (I realize NYC is an outlier, and most of your children have been back to school for a while now!)

Alicia and I are doing a planning and brainstorming retreat in Cape Cod! We’re excited to roll out some new ideas in the coming months!