“On October 28, 2021, I walked out for the last time.”
Twenty-three years. One career. It wasn't luck, and it wasn't a leap. It was two decades of small, quiet choices no one else could see. Here is what those choices looked like, one milestone at a time.
Childhood
Where It Started
I was born in Liberia and grew up in Ghana with my sister. My father came to America first to make a way. He worked hard, sent money home, and built a house in Ghana for the life he was going to live one day.
He passed three months before his 60th birthday. He never got to live in it. That is the fact underneath everything I teach. Save, yes. Build, yes. But live now, while you are here.
2007
What the 23 Years Actually Looked Like
I didn't come from money, and I didn't study finance. I worked my way through community college, then Rutgers. I started at Red Lobster in high school and stayed 23 years.
In 2007 I bought my first home on my own. 3.5% down. I was shaking when I signed. I started automating $20 at a time and took the 401(k) match before I fully understood it — not because I was confident, but because I was scared, and I did it anyway.
2016
The Quiet Rebellions
By 2016 I'd paid off my student loans, and opened an investment account I named my F U Money fund. Not "F the world." To me, F U money meant options: the ability to say no, to leave what no longer fit, to make a hard decision without feeling trapped.
During those same years I went through 12 rounds of IVF, giving myself the injections in storage closets between shifts, managing a floor in Times Square, running on almost nothing. My systems kept building in the background while I was too tired to think.
None of it looked powerful while I was doing it. It became part of the reason I could choose.
Oct 28, 2021
The Day I Walked Away
On October 28, 2021, I walked out of the building where I had spent 23 years of my life. I was 42, three weeks away from giving birth to my second daughter. I left at 5pm, sat on the bus home, and exhaled like it was the first time in years.
I had not won the lottery or made one dramatic financial move. I had spent years building a floor underneath my life through much smaller choices.
I was still scared. The money did not hand me a map for what came next. It gave me somewhere to stand while I chose.
Age 45
Why Tiny Steps to Riches
On my 45th birthday, I stopped waiting to feel ready. I built this because the thing I needed at 28, shaking over those closing papers, didn't exist — something that meets a woman exactly where she is, with no judgment.
The amount you earn matters less than the habits you keep. Small, automated actions compound into choices. You are not behind. You are exactly where you need to start.
I didn't want to build another place that started with rules. I wanted to create space for a woman to hear what matters, understand her money, and take the next useful Tiny Step from where she actually is.
Today
For the Woman Who Never Got the Manual
If no one ever sat you down and explained how money works, that gap is not your fault. Tiny Steps to Riches was built to walk beside you, wherever you are, toward the choices that matter most — because when a woman understands money, everything changes.
Ready to begin your own gentle journey?
In memory of Joe D. You gave me the strength to be me. I'll pass it on to my daughters, and to anyone who needs it.
