The Team
Laura started her professional life on Wall Street, at the high-flying (and famously hard-landing) firm of Drexel Burnham Lambert. And while the experience opened her eyes early to the perks and perils of high finance, it also convinced her that the place she really belonged was journalism school. Since then she’s had a long and varied career as a writer and editor at publications including the Washington Post, Working Woman and This Old House. The most valuable lesson she learned from the experts there was that houses aren’t that complicated or scary if you take the the time to learn the way they work; the same holds true for managing your money, a lesson she hopes to share with DailyFinance's readers.
Mathew Schwartz began his career in journalism among the ink-stained veterans of a large Gannett newspaper. In his time as an editor there, he worked on nearly every section of the paper, guided the launch of a hip weekly lifestyle magazine for 20- and 30-somethings, and helped lead a major expansion of the paper’s Internet presence as a web editor. As a side gig, he was a staff concert critic, reviewing the likes of Madonna, Barenaked Ladies, Tim McGraw, Gavin DeGraw, Bob Dylan and Ani DiFranco. But it was his talent for parsing numbers that drew him to business journalism and DailyFinance, where he is now responsible for every mistake you see on the site, and most of the ones you don’t. Who, after all, would want to spend their days on the rock star beat when they could be following the money? Not him!
Eamon Murphy was an English grad student before joining DailyFinance in 2011. As associate editor, he has written about Occupy Wall Street, the price of Legos, the value of artwork by Thomas Kinkade, and the human cost of making Apple products. In addition to U.S. culture, material and otherwise, he is interested in world politics, linguistics, and literature.
Bruce came to personal finance writing the old fashioned way: he didn't have much money, but wanted to do cool things. Clearly, some creativity was in order. From traveling around Europe to paying for a wedding, moving to New York to raising a child, he's figured out how to have fun without spending much money. In the process, he's also learned a few things about how politics and economics can help (or hurt) middle class finances. As DailyFinance's senior features writer, Bruce gets to combine his two favorite things: learning how the world works and explaining what he's learned to his readers.
Matt was born and raised outside Boston, and after his hockey career fizzled at age 13 he decided to become a writer. Now he covers retail and all things shopping for DailyFinance, where he’s constantly finding new ways to help readers save money. He’s as thrifty as you can possibly be while living in New York City, and the only time he’s ever made an impulse purchase was when he bought himself one of those singing fish for $20 a few years ago. He still hasn’t forgiven himself.
Harris Effron manages the various social media accounts of DailyFinance, AOL Jobs, and AOL Real Estate. You can follow him on twitter @HarryKEffron, or check out his latest beer homebrewing recipes.
Cassandra grew up in the suburbs of Washington, D.C. Her passion has always been the arts: dance, poetry, painting and photography. She graduated with a photojournalism degree from Western Kentucky University and moved from state to state working at newspapers, but eventually found her way back to Northern Virginia, first working for the United States Marines in Quantico and then here at the lovely modern AOL offices in Dulles, Va. -- just three miles from her childhood home.