Expertise:
Kelly Suzan Waggoner is an editor with more than 15 years of experience in personal finance, including leadership roles at AOL, Bankrate, and Finder, with her work appearing across Yahoo Finance, Nasdaq, and Lifehacker. She specializes in credit, lending, and consumer finance for financially underserved audiences, helping people navigate unfamiliar decisions around credit building, debt management, and financial wellness.
Kelly has spent her career helping people make sense of money, from building credit for the first time to paying down debt, comparing products, and planning for what's next. She works to make complex financial topics accessible, accurate, and genuinely useful, centering on those most likely to benefit from clear, trustworthy financial guidance — and least likely to get it.
Kelly has collaborated with publishers and nonprofits throughout New York City to develop best practices around editorial integrity, plain language, and digital accessibility. A Russell Sage College graduate with a certificate in editing from Poynter News University, she also ghostwrote a how-to on editing and proofreading for the Dummies series. Outside of finance, she toys with words, flips through style guides, and fantasizes about the serial comma's world domination.
Building credit takes patience, but the progress comes sooner than most people expect. A stronger credit score doesn't just open doors to better borrowing options and lower interest rates. It changes what's possible: the apartment you can rent, the car loan you can afford, the mortgage you can qualify for.
For people starting from scratch or rebuilding after setbacks, that progress starts with one on-time payment.
Questions, corrections, or feedback? I'd love to hear from you at kelly.waggoner@kikoff.com.
