I’m Jennifer Bower, your guide to calmer finances. 

I help you pull together – and make sense of – all the facets of your money life… even if right now it feels really overwhelming. (It’s a common misconception that you need to get financially organized before you work with me; that’s part of what I’m here to do with you!)

When you work hard and earn good money, it can be incredibly stressful to feel like your financial life is out of control.

Maybe you find yourself living paycheck-to-paycheck, arguing about finances with your partner, or too anxious to even look at your bank accounts.

Maybe you have a pile of debt and can’t figure out how to tackle it, or a big dream that feels like it’s always just out of reach. 

Maybe you don’t know what your financial priority should be, or how to handle an irregular income. 

Or maybe you normally feel pretty confident about money, but you’ve hit a major turning point in your life and it’s more than you can manage right now. 

You’ve checked out some personal finance advice, but it’s conflicting or too one-size-fits-all. You’re ready to create a plan that actually fits your life, your values, and your goals. But you’re fighting against trillion-dollar industries that profit directly from keeping people stressed, uninformed, and dysregulated, and you feel like you shouldn’t have to do this alone.

That’s where I come in. 

I bring insider knowledge from years of banking, top-notch research skills, an academic background in both behavioral science and accounting, and hundreds of hours of client work to help you: 

• Create a spending plan that works for your real life
• Develop a personalized financial map to your goals
• Find effective strategies that support lasting behavioral change around money
• Understand the financial products and services that are a fit for your situation – and the ones you need to avoid
• Navigate a big life change (like an inheritance or divorce)

I bring compassion to this process and build around your strengths, because I know you’re more than just your financial situation. You’re not defined by one single role or situation, and neither am I. I’ve worked behind cash registers and top-secret computer terminals (and even, for about six months, at patients’ bedsides in the ER). I’m a working mom, and I’m a person who served three tours in Iraq and jumped out of a plane 28 times. I’m a person who’s been in financial messes (… y’all, I bought a house in Florida in 2007), and I’m a person who’s winning with money now. 

We all contain multitudes, and despite what our society tries to tell us, we’re not defined by our net worth. 

If you’re feeling overwhelmed by money, that’s just one facet of your life. But if you’re here, there’s a good chance that something about your financial situation is getting in the way of you enjoying the rest of your life, and I’m here to help you get back on top.  

Learn how I can support you here.

Here’s what got me ready to support you: 

I’ve run a zero-based budget for more than a decade, and I paid off $100k in debt in four years. We paid off our 15-year mortgage eleven years early (and that $100k does not count the part of the principal we’d have paid off anyway!). Now I teach clients the habits and tactics that helped us tackle that debt. But I don’t just teach from my own personal experience… 

I’m a highly trained analyst with financial expertise. I started out as an Air Force intelligence officer, and when I entered the corporate world, I became a fraud investigator at one of America’s biggest banks. Both roles involved taking big piles of confusing data and finding a clear story and actionable recommendations. I can do the same for you, even if it feels like you’ve got a financial mess on your hands. 

I create financial plans that help you live your values. In 2019 I moved on from the bank to work as a senior analyst at a tech startup (claiming a 30% salary jump along the way). But I kept wanting to do work that I knew was truly helping people. I started Fortuna Money in 2021 as a side hustle, and walked away from my six-figure salary in 2022 to grow my business full-time. A major reason why I could afford to do that? My household’s careful approach to values-based financial planning.

To hear more about what it’s like to work with me, check out our testimonials (like these!):

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