When it comes to money, you name it, she’s done it.
From buying her first house at 25, a growing retirement account, a healthy nest egg in savings. To losing it all—almost overnight—once the Great Recession hit.
(And a financial scam that left her with $35K in credit card debt, just for good measure.)
However, a decade later, “America’s Favorite Financial Teacher” Tiffany Aliche has come full circle.
A bonafide money master, Tiffany’s become one of the best-known financial experts in the country, racking up media hits—from CNBC to Good Morning America—like zeroes on her bank account.
More importantly, through her company The Budgetnista and the Live Richer Academy, her online school, Tiffany’s helped almost 1M women save over $100M and pay off $75M in debt.
Now that we’re effectively in another recession, here are five gems from The Budgetnista on how to handle money.

Tiffany “The Budgetnista” Aliche. thebudgetnista.com
1) The importance of being cash strong…
“Debt-free does not equal wealth. First things first, in a recession, you want to be cash strong. Normally I’m like, get really aggressive with paying down your debt. That’s great, but if you don’t have savings, and you’re debt-free, and an emergency comes up, you’re going to use debt to help you do that emergency.”
2) Budgeting during pandemic…
“Number two: I would say your budget is gonna be your best friend at this moment in time. We’ve always been talking about living below your means and leaning into frugality, at least to some extent. And now, more than ever, that needs to happen.”
3) Prioritize your bills…
The most important step you can take if you’re worried about your income is to prioritize what you’re spending on, Tiffany told CNBC Make It.
To figure out which bills and expenses to pay first and which to delay, Tiffany recommends asking yourself two questions:
“ If I don’t make this payment, will I be unhealthy? If I don’t make this payment, will I be unsafe? If the answer is yes to either of those, pay that bill as best as you can.
“If you haven’t already, look into many of the assistance and payment deferment programs that utility companies, cell phone providers, lenders and landlords may be offering.”
4) Recessions make millionaires…
“I would lean into learning how to invest. The last recession caught me unaware. I was a pre-school teacher at the time and I lost my job and I lost my home that I bought for $220K.
“It ended up being sold for $150K. I wish I had been in the position then to invest, but I didn’t have the knowledge, the acumen or the money.
“I told myself, ‘I’m not going to be in that position again,’ so I have been preparing for this day. I am ready to invest because recessions make more millionaires than any other time in history.”
5) “Living under your means:” Maintaining fixed expenses…
“Managing your fixed expenses is absolutely the key to living under your means. I think the reason why folks have a hard time with living under their means is they don’t see the purpose behind it.
“The purpose of budgeting is not to budget for budget sake; it’s so you have excess savings. The purpose of savings is not to save for saving. Save it so that way you can invest. The purpose of investing is to grow wealth.”
(Quotes courtesy of Rolling Out and CNBC.)