Carrie Friedberg (née Birgbauer) has been an educator for 25 years and is also a Certified Financial Behavior Specialist®, financial therapist candidate and certified financial coach. As a former kindergarten master teacher, chief of staff, college tennis player and yoga instructor, she’s one of the most worldly people you’ll ever meet. Carrie is the chief financial officer of her multi-generational household and an authority on positive psychology, the law of attraction, learning styles and personality types. 

At the age of 30, Carrie realized she had never balanced a checkbook, stuck to a budget or been able to sustain savings. She thought that financial freedom meant “swiping the card!” So began her quest for a financial education. She read innumerable books, tried Quicken, Mint, traditional financial therapy and even designed her own financial tracking software to no avail. At a friend’s suggestion, Carrie hired a money coach and, finally, found what she had been looking for. For the first time in her life, Carrie had access to essential financial tools, distinctions and awareness as well as an accountability partner to help her look at the emotional side and psychology of money. The results were so profound that Carrie decided to do the intensive financial counselor training program at the Financial Recovery Institute and completed the Financial Behavior Specialist® certification at Creighton University. She started her own holistic money coaching practice in 2010.

Originally from Grosse Pointe, Michigan, she has lived in the Bay Area since 1998. As an undergraduate at Trinity College, Carrie played #1 singles and captained the varsity tennis team. She majored in religion, with an emphasis on Buddhism, and minored in Environment and Human Values. She earned a Cross-Cultural, Language and Academic Development multiple subject teaching credential and a master’s degree in Educational Technology at the University of San Francisco. Carrie completed a 500-hour yoga teacher training program, mastered two levels of Reiki training and attended a Vipassana course, a 10-day silent meditation retreat. Carrie currently practices Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR). She has traveled extensively in the United States, Central America, Australia, Southeast Asia, India, Scandinavia and Europe. She has been featured by the US News, Forbes, SAP and Oprah and many other media outlets. Carrie has consulted with Visa, Macy’s, Google, WeWork and several other Bay Area tech companies. She has presented at Kansas State University, University of San Francisco and UC Berkeley. She offers in-person workshops to companies and families and works with clients from around the world online in addition to in-person appointments in Palo Alto. 

Carrie worked closely with Barbara Stanny Huson developing and delivering a personal finance webinar series for five years. Carrie is an active member of the Financial Therapy Association and the Financial Psychology Institute. She consulted for FinTech companies: Moven, Zeta, Alka, Figr, MoneyMinderOnline, MoneyGrit as well as several stealth finance startups. Carrie’s personal finance memoir is forthcoming and she has been a columnist for WeWork Magazine, Thrive Global, Education.com, The Shriver Report and GoGirl Finance. She currently lives in Portola Valley, CA with her husband and two young children. In her spare time, Carrie can usually be found on the tennis court, cooking and hosting gatherings with friends, seeing live music or seeking peace of mind on the yoga mat.