Start your family's financial journey with lived experience, not theory.

She learned money the hard way.
She built this so your kids don't have to.

Ashlee Richards is a blind mom of five, a certified financial educator, and the founder of Financially Growing LLC. She experienced foster care, homelessness, and debt before she ever had a financial roadmap. That experience became her purpose, and this company.

Learn more here

Meet your guide

Ashlee Richards

Blind mom of five · Certified Financial Education Professional · Founder of Financially Growing LLC

Certified Financial Education Instructor Consultant®

National Advisory Committee Member

NFEC-Aligned Curriculum

Our story

Built from lived experience, not theory.

“I believe deeply in prevention. I believe in giving young people the tools they need before life gets expensive, overwhelming, or unforgiving.”

I didn't grow up with financial guidance. I learned money the hard way, through stress, mistakes, and survival mode. As a young mom who experienced foster care, homelessness, and debt, I know what it feels like to navigate adulthood without a financial map. Later, I lost my sight permanently. Through all of it, I learned that financial knowledge isn't just useful. It's protective.

That experience changed me. It also gave me clarity.

Today I'm a certified financial educator serving on a national advisory committee, and I've built Financially Growing around one conviction: young people should learn money before the stakes are high, not after the damage is done. Financial education should feel like encouragement, not intimidation. It should be rooted in real life, not worksheets on a shelf.

When students understand money early, they gain freedom later. Being part of that transformation isn't just my profession. It's my purpose.

— Ashlee Richards, Founder & CEO, Financially Growing LLC

Our mission

“Money lessons should be as common as bedtime stories.”

Financially Growing guides individuals to gain healthy money behaviors and maintain positive money beliefs, through truthful, common sense financial education that meets families, schools, and communities where they are.

Our approach

We don't drop off a binder and walk away.

Most financial literacy programs check a compliance box. Financially Growing is built around measurable behavior change. Every curriculum we design, whether for a family's living room or a school district, includes pre and post assessments, real-world application, and outcome data you can share with stakeholders, funders, and families.

We combine behavioral psychology, developmental alignment, and real-life financial scenarios to create learning that actually sticks.

Prevention, not reaction

We teach financial skills before students need them, before the first credit card, first apartment, first real paycheck. Prevention is cheaper, kinder, and more effective than crisis recovery.

Measurable outcomes

Every program includes pre/post surveys and impact reporting. You'll have data you can share, with boards, with funders, with parents, that proves financial literacy is working.

No lectures. No guilt.

Content is designed to feel encouraging, not shaming. Students engage because the scenarios are real, allowance, first jobs, online shopping, saving for things they actually want.

Faith can be included, never forced

For families and organizations who want it, optional faith-based reflections connect money decisions to values, stewardship, and generosity, without requiring it for the core curriculum.

Built for every environment where kids learn money.

Financially Growing serves families, schools, nonprofits, faith communities, and credit unions across the country. Whether you're a parent teaching at the kitchen table or a curriculum director designing for an entire district, there's a path for you.

Families and homeschool parents who want structured, self-paced financial education for their teens
Schools and districts that need NFEC-aligned curriculum with measurable outcomes and stakeholder reporting
Nonprofits and youth organizations serving underrepresented communities

Churches and faith-based communities that want money education rooted in stewardship
Credit unions required to offer financial education programs to their members

Credentialed. Experienced. Accountable.

Financially Growing LLC is led by a Certified Financial Education Instructor (CFEI®) currently serving on a national financial literacy advisory committee. Our curriculum is designed and reviewed against NFEC standards and grounded in behavioral financial psychology and developmental learning science.

We are not a template download. We are educators, curriculum designers, and consultants who stay involved from discovery through outcome reporting.

Key credentials

Certified Financial Education Instructor (CFEI®)
National financial literacy advisory committee member
NFEC-aligned curriculum design and review
Grounded in behavioral financial psychology
Aligned with developmental learning science

Ready to take the next step?

Whether you're a parent looking for a structured way to teach your teen about money, or an organization building a district-wide financial literacy program, we have a path for you.