About the Founder
She learned money the hard way. She built this so your kids don't have to.
Ashlee Richards is a blind mother of five, an accredited certified financial educator, the author of The Loved First Bridge, and the founder of Financially Growing LLC. She lived foster care, homelessness, and debt long before she ever had a financial roadmap. Now, she hands that roadmap to other people's children - because financial knowledge isn't just useful, it's protective.
Ashlee Richards, Founder & CEO, Financially Growing LLC
OUR STORY
Built From Lived Experience
I didn't grow up with financial guidance. I learned money the hard way, through stress, mistakes, and survival mode. As a young mom who experienced foster care, homelessness, and debt, I know exactly what it feels like to navigate adulthood without a map for the money part.
Later, I lost my sight permanently. Through all of it, I learned something that changed the direction of my life: financial knowledge isn't just useful. It is protective.
That experience gave me clarity, and it gave me a floor. One sentence I heard in the dark at seven years old: you are loved. Not you will be loved if you do better. Loved. Already. Everything I have built since stands on that order, loved first and built second, including this company.
THE PATH HERE
Every Part Was Earned
Financially Growing was built from lived experience, not just theory. This is the timeline of how survival turned into leadership, and how personal resilience became a proven methodology.
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The Beginning
Foster care & one sentence
Raised in foster care and generational poverty. At seven, the sentence that became the first framework: you are loved, already, before you produce anything.
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Young Motherhood
Homelessness & debt
Learning money through survival mode instead of instruction, which is exactly how most adults learn it, and exactly what prevention exists to interrupt.
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The Hardest Season
Vision loss & rebuilding
Losing sight permanently taught the framework the company now teaches: vision is what remains when sight is gone, and it can still build.
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The Credentials
A seat at the table
APFI®, CFLP®, and CFEI® certifications, NFEC-aligned curriculum design, and a seat on a national financial literacy advisory committee.
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Now
Financially Growing LLC
A prevention-first company with two sides of one house: The Loved First Bridge for the woman breaking the cycle, and MoneyRoots for the teens and families growing from the same ground.
OUR APPROACH
Prevention, Not Reaction
We don't drop off a binder and walk away. Most financial literacy programs check a compliance box. Financially Growing is built around measurable behavior change.
Every curriculum we design, whether for a family's living room or a school district, includes pre and post assessments, real-world application, and outcome data you can share with stakeholders, funders, and families. We combine behavioral psychology, developmental alignment, and real-life financial scenarios so the learning actually sticks.
01 Prevention, Not Reaction
We teach financial skills before students need them: before the first credit card, first apartment, first real paycheck. Prevention is cheaper, kinder, and more effective than crisis recovery.
02 Measurable Outcomes
Pre and post surveys with impact reporting on every program, so you have data to share with boards, funders, and parents.
03 No Lectures. No Guilt.
Content is designed to encourage, not shame. Students engage because the scenarios are real: allowance, first jobs, online shopping, saving for things they actually want.
04 Faith Included, Never Forced
For families and organizations who want it, optional faith reflections connect money to stewardship and generosity. Both tracks carry identical academic rigor.
05 Accessible By Design
The founder is blind, so accessibility is the design brief, never a retrofit: screen-reader-first files, large print, true dark mode editions, and fields every keyboard can reach.
Prevention that excludes people is not prevention.
WHO WE SERVE
Built For Every Environment
Financially Growing serves families, schools, nonprofits, faith communities, and credit unions across the country. Whether you are a parent teaching at the kitchen table or a curriculum director designing for an entire district, there is a path for you.
Families & Homeschools
Structured, self-paced financial education for teens, with parent scripts for the conversations in between.
Schools & Districts
NFEC-aligned curriculum with measurable outcomes and reporting your stakeholders can actually use.
Nonprofits & Youth Orgs
Programs designed for the young people most often served last and reached least.
Churches & Faith Communities
Money education rooted in stewardship, with Scripture woven in rather than bolted on.
Credit Unions
Member financial education that satisfies the requirement and earns the room.
The Mother at the Center
The mother breaking the cycle, who gets her own reset through The Loved First Bridge before she teaches anyone else.
NOT A TEMPLATE DOWNLOAD
Credentialed And Accountable
Financially Growing LLC is led by an accredited consultant and certified financial educator currently serving on a national financial literacy advisory committee. Our curriculum is designed and reviewed against NFEC standards and grounded in behavioral financial psychology and developmental learning science. We stay involved from discovery through outcome reporting.
Professional Appointments & Scope
- National Advisory Role: Serving member on a national financial literacy advisory committee.
- Curriculum Standards: Fully NFEC-aligned design and review framework.
- Published Outcomes: Featured methodology in two published case studies.
- Author & Developer: Creator of The Loved First Bridge and MoneyRoots.
READY TO TAKE THE NEXT STEP?
A Path For Everyone
FOR FAMILIES
The Full Teen Curriculum
Five modules, faith and secular tracks at equal rigor. $147 per module, $497 for all five, and a free sample lesson before you commit to anything.
FOR HER
The Reset Before The Money
The Loved First Bridge in book and fillable workbook format, plus a free first walk that asks nothing but your honesty.
FOR ORGANIZATIONS
A Free Discovery Call
Schools, nonprofits, churches, and credit unions. You leave with a clear recommendation, whether or not we work together.
Every digital product ships in both a large-print light edition and a true dark mode edition. If something we made does not work with your assistive technology, we will fix it or refund it.
Financially Growing is a prevention-first financial wellness company that walks with women, teens, and families, built on one conviction: you are loved first and built second.
- Cheers and spreadsheets.
Faith integration is always optional and clearly marked; core money skills are fully accessible to every family. Colossians 4:6 referenced.
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