As inflation looms and the job market weakens, personal finance gives journalists a way to show how economic trends affect daily life. That was the focus of a recent webinar hosted by the Society for Advancing Business Editing and Writing (SABEW) in partnership with the National Endowment for Financial Education (NEFE).
The session, “Uncovering Personal Finance Stories,” featured Oyin Adedoyin of The Wall Street Journal, Claire Ballentine of Bloomberg News, and Tara Siegel Bernard of The New York Times. Jeremy Olshan, editor of TheWrongNotes.com, moderated.
“Personal finance stories aren’t front and center, but they’re always there,” said Paul Golden, NEFE’s managing director of media and communications. “Policy shifts, even cultural trends, the personal finance angle can be one of the most powerful ways that you will connect with your audience.”
Paths to the personal finance beat
Panelists discussed how they came to cover personal finance and why it continues to evolve.
Adedoyin joined The Wall Street Journal after covering higher education. “You didn’t really have to know about personal finance specifically,” she said. “You really just had to have a curiosity for good storytelling.” One of her early assignments turned into a feature on the difficulty of using $100 bills in New York. “Sometimes the most relatable angle is the story,” she said. The piece drew hundreds of reader comments and launched a mini-beat on physical currency.
Ballentine began at Bloomberg as an intern before covering markets, focusing on broad stock market trends. She later joined the personal finance team, which was newly created in response to the 2021 surge in retail trading. “We wanted a better way to chronicle that,” she said. “Since then, it’s morphed into a really robust team that covers all aspects of your life and your money.”
Bernard, who has covered personal finance at The New York Times since the 2008 financial crisis, said the beat is constantly shifting. “It evolves with the times,” she said. “What’s not a money story?”
Spotting financial angles in unlikely places
Panelists emphasized that financial stories often hide in plain sight.
Ballentine pointed to coverage of Taylor Swift’s engagement that focused not on the celebrity news but on the rush of bets over when the wedding would happen. “It was a fun little way to look at this area of gambling that people are increasingly turning to,” she said, highlighting platforms like Kalshi and Polymarket, where users wager on timelines and other life events.
Adedoyin’s reporting on $100 bills led to a story revealing the Treasury’s plan to stop producing pennies.
Bernard described a deep dive into climate risks in homebuying and an investigation into financial scams. “We spend so much time on asset allocation, but the bigger question might be: How do you not lose your money?” she said. She also flagged how weight-loss drugs like Ozempic could ripple into Social Security and pensions, a story that began with a brief mention in a UK paper. This connection stems from the idea that if the drugs help people live healthier lives, it could change life expectancy forecasts and put new pressure on retirement systems.
What makes a pitch stick
“Editors are always asking for characters,” Adedoyin said. Her story on micro-retirements, a trend of young workers quitting jobs for extended breaks, began on TikTok. “The question was: Is this actually happening, and what does it say about the broader culture? Is it part of a trend or a countertrend?”
Ballentine said the best stories often come from conversations. Most of her pitches “aren’t really written down, formalized pitches to anyone.” She said reporters must weigh time investment against reader interest.
Bernard stressed the importance of impact. She said reporters must figure out “what will actually go someplace, and what sort of reach it may have,” citing the public service loan forgiveness rule as an example.
Competing in an AI-driven landscape
“People have some other AI server on their phone, and they can ask very simple questions, like ‘Where should I put my money if I want to save up for a house by 2037?’” said Adedoyin. “They’ll get a clear step-by-step of where to put their money, and it might even ask a follow-up question.” That shift makes deep expertise and unique angles more important. Adedoyin has focused on student loan coverage, drawing on her higher education reporting background to track policy changes.
Bernard emphasized the value of reader dialogue. “Once you have that two-way conversation going, I’ve received so much mail saying, ‘Thank you so much for explaining XYZ. Can you also explain ABC?’” she said.
“There’s so much bad advice out there,” Ballentine said. “They need professionals and journalists to dig in and figure out what’s good to use and what’s not.”
