Yanely Espinal, Director of Educational Outreach, Next Gen Personal Finance; Author of Mind Your Money
Born and raised by Dominican immigrant parents in Brooklyn, Yanely is a proud product of NYC public schools. She received a full scholarship to Brown University and graduated with a bachelor's degree in 2011. As a Teach For America corps member, she taught in Canarsie, Brooklyn, and later received her master's degree from Relay Graduate School of Education in 2013. While working as an elementary school teacher, Yanely decided to change her financial life by paying off $20,000 of debt in just 18 months. In 2015 she created MissBeHelpful, a YouTube channel that now has over 4.5 million views, to help others learn the money skills she never learned in school.
Her book, Mind Your Money: Insightful Stories and Strategies to Help You Reach Your #MoneyGoals, was published in May of 2023 and quickly became an Amazon Bestseller, with over 10,000 copies sold in the first few months. In late 2023, Yanely was named a Rising Star by the Association of Latino Professionals For America.
Yanely is the Director of Educational Outreach for Next Gen Personal Finance, a nonprofit offering 21st century relevant financial education curriculum and teacher professional development workshops at no cost. She also serves as board president for the Niche Clinic, a nonprofit helping youth in Philadelphia learn about saving, budgeting, and investing, while providing them opportunities to earn money for creating meaningful change in their school or community. As an Advocate with the Mission 2030 Fund, Yanely champions proposed legislation at the state level to guarantee high school students access to a semester-long personal finance course. She is also the host of Financially Inclined from Marketplace, a video podcast for teens about money lessons for living life your own way. Connect with Yanely at mindyourmoneybook.com or on social media @MissBeHelpful.