From mastering her budget to buying her first home, Christina has spent the last decade transforming her financial future with Clarifi.
The Philadelphia resident was a young mom when she first learned of Clarifi. She’d been renting a cramped apartment for herself and her three kids, determined to move her family out and begin a new chapter.
Christina started her financial journey with Clarifi, creating a budget and eventually saving enough for a downpayment to buy her first home.
Clarifi not only meets the person where they are, but they also help them elevate and grow.
-Christina, Clarifi client
The Philadelphia resident shared key financial lessons she gained at Clarifi over the last decade:
Want to take control of your finances? First, track your expenses.
“[Before Clarifi,] I wasn’t looking at my finances very closely. Money was floating out the door. I didn’t know where it was going and I couldn’t track it correctly. It was super dysfunctional and dysregulated. I was doing basic budgeting, but I knew I needed more help to save for that down payment. My aha moment was realizing if I could get my budget down on paper and understand each category, then I could stick with it every month. I can do whatever I need to do to orchestrate my finances to best benefit me.
Budget at any income.
“When I was going to school, my budget was tight. I was making minimum wage. Clarifi’s savings program was extremely accessible to me: I saved $20 a month for 24 months. It was very low barrier. Clarifi also helped me plan for my income tax so I could put the rest of my money into a savings account. It helped substantially because it allowed me to pay my bills, get through summer classes and graduate on time.”
Progress, not perfection.
“With Clarifi, even if you’re not perfect, if you stray from the budget, the next time you meet with your counselor, you’ll get back on track. It wasn’t a seamless process. It was ‘life happens’ and as you’re thinking about [long-term goals], you create a savings account and have someone supporting you through that stuff.’
Find a budget that works for you…
“I feel more in control because I zero-dollar budget. That means I budget my income down to zero. There’s no extra money just laying around. I’m allocating money for bills, vacation, saving. When I was not budgeting, there were so many things going unaccounted for, unwritten for, things we needed that we went without. I’ve definitely missed out on a lot, and I often put my foot down with my friends and let them know I am not the last-minute trip girly. I budget so far in advance, now you got to get an item line in my budget before I can agree to something.”
…and stick with it.
“I do not play about my budget. My monthly meeting with my partner is around our budget, ensuring expenses are accounted for, checks are aligned correctly, bills are paid on time, money is going where it’s needed to go. We’re being proactive and setting goals.”
Prioritize your financial health.
“Think of going to the doctor or dentist: It should be a regular appointment. I think of financial health in the same way. It should be a regular relationship with a practitioner who has the expertise that I don’t. [With my Clarifi counselor], I have an accountability partner, someone in my corner to cheer me on and help me navigate the pitfalls. Changes do happen, so having a reliable and consistently free, kind, and helpful source is going to help with my financial goals in 2026. Those include bolstering my savings account, updating some of the line items in my budget, and becoming debt-free by the end of this year.”
Share your financial knowledge.
“I’m very conscious of teaching my kids the skills that Clarifi showed me how to navigate: basic budgeting, setting financial and savings goals and tracking where their money goes. My son is going into service, which is a huge financial gain. He has a checking and savings account so he can differentiate his money and allocate his income. My daughter is selling cheesecakes right now: looking at her profits, losses, and expenses. We know money doesn’t grow on trees. I’m extremely proud of them.
But I’m not just passing down financial knowledge: I’m passing across. It’s going to my sister, who never took financial literacy courses. It’s going to my mom, who owned a home before I did but still doesn’t understand how compounding interest works. I’m explaining to her the mortgage payments and her budget now as a retired person and what it could look like if she paid off her home early.”
Remember: Not everyone will have the same financial strategy, challenges or goals.
“People are not all the same and every month is different. I don’t always get my budget perfect because life happens, but because of Clarifi, I have the stability to realign when things go awry. My financial situation is not perfect, but I know how to manage my money instead of allowing for it to manage itself.”