Hey! I’m Traquel…

My passion is teaching anyone who will listen to me about how to take care of their money. :) Not just as in folding it perfectly in a wallet, but how to think about it, respect it, earn it, multiply it, share it, AND enjoy it!

I have always been thrifty. I learned a lot about money from my sweet Grandma Joyce who lived through the Great Depression and certainly lived with a scarcity mindset regarding money. She NEVER walked past a coin on the sidewalk. She would giggle and say, “A penny saved is a penny earned.” To this day, I am just like her in that way. I think of her every time I find one!

When I got married, her brother, my Great Uncle Cliff, gave us the book, The Richest Man in Babylon, which solidified everything my grandma taught me and etched it in by very being. My husband and I used it as a guide in our early married lives which has stood the tests of our financial trials.

In 2003 I was asked to be a pilot teacher for Financial Literacy: a class that had just been labeled as “required” for graduation from Utah high schools.

It changed my life!

Since that time I have either been teaching Financial Literacy in a brick and mortar classroom, teaching it in an online setting, or teaching teachers how to teach it. I was a Utah State Board of Education consultant for eleven years during the developmental stages of creating the required class and got to witness and experience the highs and lows that go into changing graduation requirements, legislation, writing standards, providing tools for teachers, funding issues, assessment creation, and my favorite - spending time training teachers. I am so proud that the state of Utah was among the first to prioritize the financial lives of our students.

My husband and I have applied the concepts we teach students (he has taught Financial Literacy, as well) to our own lives and have become living proof that though we didn’t start with much, by taking care of what we DO have and by making smart money choices, dreams materialize! Aside from our professional education careers, we have managed to grow and sell businesses, develop exciting side hustles, therefore funding our now successful real estate endeavors.

I opened my Teachers Pay Teachers store in 2013 and am completely addicted to the creative juices that engulf my brain as I create tools to share with my students and other Financial Literacy teachers, based on my experiences. I am not one to just have kids, “read the chapter and do the questions at the end,” and I love the learning that happens when kids have higher level, engaging, creative work to encounter in class.

I am a lover of running, podcasts, hot air balloon festivals, and whale watching. I am married to the man of my dreams who caught my heart way back in high school. We have three beautiful children who have been troopers as I have raised them with the financial upbringing I wish all of today’s children could have. Hopefully one day they will share it with their kids!!

Until then, I will capture everything here, on my little ‘ol blog and am honored to have you along for the ride.

Enjoy!