Author of a dozen books, popular speaker, corporate educator and spokesperson, and mother of seven, Ellie Kay has walked her own financial talk and knows what it’s like to be strapped for cash and struggling. Within two and a half years, she went from being a new wife and stepmom to two children with $40,000 in consumer debt to being completely debt free-all on one military income! Within 15 years and while adding five more children to the family, Ellie and her husband were able to pay cash for their cars, buy and furnish two five-bedroom homes (one after selling the other), take wonderful vacations, dress fashionably, build a nest egg for retirement, send the kids to college loan-free, and give away more than $100,000 to nonprofit organizations around the world.
Ellie meets her audiences-mainstream Americans who earn between $40,000 and $100,000 annually-right where they are financially. She teaches them sound money habits that are do-able and will stretch their dollars for the lifestyle of their dreams. Her latest title, Living Rich for Less (Waterbook/Random House, January 2009), sets forth her 10/10/80 Rule – give away 10 percent of your income, save 10 percent, and spend the last 80 percent wisely – with hundreds of Cha-Ching Factor tips that show readers how to keep and put more than $30,000 in their pockets in just one year.