I Didn’t Start Out Writing About Money. I Started Out Counting It.
For most of my career, I wasn’t someone who talked about finance — I was the person in the room making sure the numbers were right.
I spent over a decade as a senior accountant and eventually Controller at a startup I can’t name publicly (NDA is real, the experience was realer). When I joined, we had 40 employees and a Series A. When I left, we had a valuation north of $1 billion and enough complexity to make your head spin. I managed cash flow forecasts, oversaw audits, built financial models for board presentations, and helped navigate the kind of high-stakes decisions that don’t come with a second chance.
Before that, I spent the early part of my career in corporate accounting — working my way from staff accountant to senior roles across industries including healthcare, logistics, and SaaS. I passed my CPA exam on the first try at 26, which I’m still quietly proud of.
But Here’s What I Don’t Tell People at Networking Events
In my mid-30s, I had $47,000 in credit card and personal loan debt.
I was earning a good income and still managed to bury myself in financial stress. I knew how to audit a balance sheet. I had no idea how to build a personal budget that I’d actually stick to. I thought money management was something people either naturally had or didn’t.
It took me about three years, a lot of spreadsheets, and some genuine lifestyle recalibration to dig out. That experience is probably the most useful credential I have for writing this site — because I’ve been inside the anxiety of personal financial chaos, not just the clean theory of it.
Why I Started Karla & Co.
When I stepped back from full-time executive work a couple of years ago, I started getting the same calls from friends and family. College savings questions. Medicare confusion. Panic about retirement accounts after market drops. “Should I pay off the house or invest the extra money?” type questions at 11pm.
I realized there’s a massive gap between what finance professionals know and what regular people can access. Most personal finance content online is either dumbed down to the point of uselessness or loaded with affiliate links pushing products the writer has never used.
I started this site to fill that gap — practical, honest, accountant-brain takes on the money decisions that actually affect people’s lives.
A Few Things About Me Outside the Spreadsheets
I live in the Phoenix, Arizona area. I have two adult kids — one just finished grad school, one is about to start it, which means I am intimately familiar with the FAFSA, student loan repayment options, and the emotional experience of watching your own financial plan get stress-tested.
I’m also somewhere in the middle of planning my own retirement, which means I’m writing about a lot of these topics from real-time experience, not hindsight.
Credentials:
- Certified Public Accountant (CPA), licensed in Arizona
- 15+ years in professional accounting and finance
- Former Controller, pre-IPO tech company
- BS in Accounting, Arizona State University
Questions or topic requests: Contact me