Paid off $31,000 in student loans using the debt avalanche method
She tracked every dollar, stayed consistent for four years, and came out the other side debt-free. She writes about the debt avalanche because she's lived it.
Claire Voss
Personal Finance Writer
Austin, Texas
- 8 years nonprofit financial counseling experience
- B.A. Economics, University of Texas at Austin
- Personal finance writer for 6 years
Claire Voss is a personal finance writer based in Austin, Texas. After 8 years working as a financial counselor at a nonprofit agency — helping hundreds of people face debt, rebuild credit, and build budgets that actually work — she left to write full-time. Her goal is simple: make the kind of plain-English financial guidance she gave her clients available to anyone, for free.
A Bit About Claire
Drives a used Honda Civic bought with cash
She saved up, bought it outright, and has no car payment. It starts every time.
Weekend runner and amateur home cook
Running and cooking share the same principle she applies to money: small, consistent habits compound into something worthwhile.
Based in Austin, Texas
Austin is where she did her counseling work, and where she still writes today. She's partial to its weird-but-practical character.
Areas of Expertise
Budgeting Debt Payoff Credit Building Emergency Funds Banking Investing Basics Money Psychology Taxes for Individuals
Every article Claire writes falls within these core topics — the same areas she spent eight years helping people navigate in person.
Claire's Story
Claire Voss spent eight years as a financial counselor at a nonprofit credit counseling agency in Austin, Texas, working one-on-one with individuals and families facing debt, credit problems, and financial crisis. In that time, she helped hundreds of clients create budgets, negotiate with creditors, rebuild their credit scores, and build savings habits that stuck.
What struck her most wasn't how bad people were with money — it was how badly most financial information was written. The guides were full of jargon. The advice assumed a level of baseline knowledge most people didn't have. And too often, the "helpful" resources were quietly designed to sell something rather than genuinely educate.
She left the nonprofit to write full-time, determined to change that. Fiscal Word is the result: a free reference library for every money decision an ordinary person might face, written in the same plain English she used with her counseling clients.
Claire holds a B.A. in Economics from the University of Texas at Austin. She paid off $31,000 in student loan debt over four years using the debt avalanche method. She drives a used Honda Civic she bought with cash. She believes that good financial decisions are about behavior and psychology as much as they are about math — and that everyone deserves access to honest, clear financial information, regardless of their income or zip code.
Written by Claire