Are you ready to be empowered to take control of your relationship with money? Our mission is to set you on the path to financial wellness by inspiring empowered life and financial decision-making.
Alex Thomas Rollins, Founder
A Little Bit About Alex
Alex is the Founder of ATR Financials and Founder of My Common Cents, ATR’s nonprofit division of the organization.
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Alex developed her love for personal finance education at a young age — and that passion, along with her desire to truly impact people’s lives — is what led her to begin her career in financial journalism.
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Alex earned AB degrees in both French and Broadcast/Digital Journalism from the University of Georgia, where she also played on the Division I Women’s Varsity Soccer team and was a member of the Kappa Kappa Gamma sorority.
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After graduation, Alex went on to earn a Master of Science degree in financial, business and digital journalism from Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism. During her time at Northwestern, Alex was invited to participate in the school’s Washington, D.C., program, where she covered various stories on Capitol Hill, involving interviews with some of the most influential members of Congress.
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Upon completion of this program, Alex was accepted to Bloomberg News' highly sought-after internship program to serve as a writer and producer covering daily and enterprise financial and healthcare stories in Washington, D.C., where her work was prominently published across all Bloomberg outlets, including the Bloomberg Terminal and BusinessWeek.
As she developed a stronger passion for the personal and consumer sides of business journalism, Alex left Bloomberg to join HLN/CNN as a writer and producer for consumer finance expert Clark Howard, as well as various other network shows and specials. After developing an expertise in social media content and advertising strategy, Alex then served as HLN’s Social Media Manager for about three years — leading all network social media strategy and campaigns.
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Alex’s expertise in digital and social strategy, along with her passion and expertise for personal finance, then led her to return to work for the Clark Howard brand, serving as Managing Editor – where she was responsible for building the company’s digital brand and online presence from the ground up. This included leading various brand-wide efforts ranging from developing brand identity, website redesign, content expansion, audience development and video production, to marketing campaigns, social media strategy, partnerships, sponsorships and more. While serving in this role, Alex launched her own personal finance series under the Clark brand aimed at teaching young people the basics of money management and more. Alex led the brand to a 250% growth in website traffic and more than 200% growth in audience engagement. Her efforts also allowed Clark.com (which she helped rebrand from ClarkHoward.com) to pick up its first three digital sponsorships and establish a variety of successful partnerships.
Alex's Passion for Financial Wellness
Throughout her personal and professional financial journey, Alex developed a deep passion for financial wellness and money management education. When it comes to financial mistakes, Alex has made them all at one point or another in her life. But rather than give up, she decided to turned those "mistakes" into lessons that would change her life forever. When Alex decided to take charge of her financial life, opportunities began to open up for her. The debt collectors stopped calling and she built a rewarding relationship with her money and overall financial life.
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She envisions a world where all young people and adults have access to the best education, resources and tools they need to make more informed, thoughtful and beneficial financial and life decisions that are aligned with their values so that they can enjoy a more secure and rewarding life and future. Her goal is to do her part in helping to create a world in which every individual has access to the knowledge they need to attain financial wellness and achieve their goals.
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The truth is, everyone has a complicated relationship with money – regardless of how much you have, who you are, where you are or where you came from. The good news is, you have the power to reshape that relationship into one that can change your life in ways you've never imagined.
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"Ever since the day when I decided to take control of my financial life, I have been passionate about helping others do the same. What started out as series on basic financial concepts and a blog has turned into an organization and partner nonprofit aimed at helping people understand money so they can achieve financial wellness. Like most people, I learned little to nothing about money growing up. And still to this day, most young adults head off to college or into the "real" world without a clue of how to make successful financial decisions or why it even matters in the grand scheme of their life. My goal is to change that. Through our workshops, curriculums and other programs, we aim to arm Americans of all ages with the information they need to understand their money and create a financially successful lifestyle for themselves both now and down the road."
– Alex
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Each aspect of your life plays a critical role in your health, well-being and overall quality of life. When just one aspect is ignored, it’s impossible to create a healthy and balanced lifestyle that positively impacts your mental, physical and emotional health. Taking a holistic approach to wellness allows you to ensure that each factor is positively influencing your choices, habits, lifestyle and overall quality of life. Our goal is to help you better understand the role that your financial life plays in this equation and how to improve the impact it has on your ability to create the life you want to live.
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Incorporating Your Money Story
No one is entirely rational when it comes to money. We don’t follow a budget or spending plan when we know it’s in our best interest. We spend more than we can afford, out of recklessness, guilt or some other reason. As a result, our money behavior often causes shame, creating a vicious cycle of poor choices. In fact, about 49% of Americans are “concerned, anxious or fearful about their current financial well-being.” Money is something we all have a complex relationship with, and your personal finances aren’t a fixed entity – your money is a complex combination of numbers, choices, challenges and opportunities you interact with and have feelings about. Whether you understand them or not, you make decisions every single day about money that impact your financial situation – and in turn, this affects your emotional wellbeing and future behaviors. This relationship is something that has evolved over your entire life and will continue to evolve in the future. Our goal is to help you change what this relationship looks like and the impact it has on your overall well-being and quality of life.
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Financial Literacy & Achieving Financial Wellness
Our Holistic Approach
What is Financial Literacy?
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Financial literacy is the ability to understand basic financial concepts and how they impact our everyday lives. It includes the ability to understand financial choices, plan for the future, spend wisely and manage the challenges associated with life events such as job loss, saving for retirement, handling debt or paying for education. Financial literacy is important, because it allows a person to confidently make informed decisions that will positively impact their life both now and in the future. Financial literacy is not an absolute state; it is a constantly evolving state of competency.
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What is Financial Wellness?
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Our goal is to help you achieve financial wellness. This is a lifestyle that offers financial security and freedom of choice, among other things. And it is through financial literacy and learning about money that will allow you to get there.
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Financial Wellness involves the process of learning how to successfully manage all aspects of your financial life — from budgeting and managing expenses to paying down debt and saving for retirement. Money plays a critical role in our lives and not having enough of it can impact our health and overall wellbeing both now and down the road.
Financial stress is one of the most common causes of stress, anxiety and fear for people of all ages. Learning how to maximize your financial wellness will help prepare you to to handle potentially stressful financial situations both now and in the future — as well as the impact they have on your life. The most important point to remember is that achieving financial wellness doesn’t happen overnight — it’s a process that involves taking control over your financial life one step at a time.
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By taking a holistic approach to money, you can ensure that all components of your financial life are in order and positively impacting your overall wellbeing. Through financial literacy and a variety of practices that incorporate your own personal money story, we can provide you with a direct path to achieving this type of financially fit lifestyle that reduces stress and increases confidence in decision-making.
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A Few Benefits of Attaining Financial Wellness
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Day-to-Day Security: Being able to cover day-to-day and month-to-month expenses without worry. It means having enough money coming in to cover all of your necessities, as well as a few extra things you want.
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Future Security: Having enough accessible money to cover things like emergency expenses, unanticipated bills, job loss and more.
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Freedom of Choice: This is the ability to choose (within reason): where you want to live, where your kids go to school, what you want to eat, what you wear, the car you drive and more. It means having enough money to create and sustain the the type of lifestyle you want to live.
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Future Freedom of Choice: This means getting and staying on track toward future financial goals like buying a home, sending a child to college or covering your retirement. It’s having a successful plan for the future and understanding what it takes to reach your goals in life.
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​ATR Financials is an educational organization dedicated to creating a culture of financial wellness for young people and adults by inspiring empowered life and financial decision-making. We are grounded in the belief that regardless of background or income level, people with better access to education are better able to take control of their circumstances, improve their quality of life and create a more stable future for themselves. Through financial literacy, our goal is to help adults and the next generations receive the tools they need to develop the skills, mindset and lifestyle that allows them to become self-sufficient and achieve financial wellness and stability. This means providing the highest-quality education and breaking down barriers that exist in the current system.
Our Mission
