The Financial Diet · Personal Finance · YouTube · Content Creation · United States
Chelsea Fagan is the founder and CEO of The Financial Diet (TFD), a Manhattan-based personal finance media company with a 1.34 million-subscriber YouTube channel, and the author of personal finance and hosting books.
Chelsea Fagan is an American writer and the founder and CEO of The Financial Diet (TFD). According to the company's "Who We Are" page, she started TFD in late 2014 as a personal blog to track her own budget, and it grew into a cross-platform media company aimed mainly at young women who want to talk about money, run by a small all-women team from offices in Manhattan. Lauren Ver Hage is listed there as co-founder and designer. In an April 2021 interview with the Oxford student newspaper Cherwell, Fagan said she left college in 2010 without a degree and built her media career through online writing before launching the company. Her birth year is not stated in the sources reviewed.
TFD publishes on its website, a newsletter, a podcast and social channels. Its YouTube channel, @thefinancialdiet, which is linked from the official website, showed 1.34 million subscribers and about 1,700 videos when read on September 14, 2026.
What she sells falls into three groups. First, books: The Financial Diet: A Total Beginner's Guide to Getting Good with Money, co-written with Lauren Ver Hage and published in paperback by Holt Paperbacks (Macmillan), 208 pages, on sale January 2, 2018; and Having People Over: A Modern Guide to Planning, Throwing, and Attending Every Type of Party, published by Ten Speed Press on October 21, 2025, with a $30.00 hardcover list price on Penguin Random House's site. She also wrote the foreword to Beyond Getting By (2024), a TFD book authored by Holly Trantham. Second, a self-paced course, How To Build A Real Business On YouTube, taught by Fagan and sold on TFD's Kit store for $55.00: four modules with homework, slides and recorded office hours in which she answers student questions. Third, paid live workshops under the name The Studio at TFD. TFD's own site announced two such virtual workshops in 2020, co-hosted by Fagan with guest experts and priced at $10 each on Eventbrite, including a worksheet, a live Q&A and a recording. TFD also promotes free wealth-building masterclasses hosted by Fagan with financial advisor Kellen Thayer through Advisor.com; those are free and require completing a short quiz.
On reputation: Fagan has been interviewed by outlets and podcasts such as Cherwell (2021) and NPR's How I Built This Lab (July 2022), and her first book appears on the publisher's page as a Refinery29 Best Book of 2018. A web search run on September 14, 2026 for her name and TFD combined with the terms controversy, criticism and lawsuit returned no court case or regulatory action; she does not present herself as a licensed financial advisor, and TFD's investment-related masterclasses are co-hosted by a named advisor. An attempt to query the FTC website search on the same date did not return readable results, so that register could not be checked. Mentor Explorer did not locate independent reviews of the YouTube course, and the current schedule and prices of The Studio at TFD could not be confirmed because its site was unreachable.
Objective facts about their offer, taken from public sources. We don't rate the quality of the programs or the results you may get.
One without a public price
1 free
5 official channels
Massive audience
Facts checked on Sep 14, 2026.
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| Program | Type | Published price | Link |
|---|---|---|---|
| How To Build A Real Business On YouTube Self-paced four-module course by Chelsea Fagan on building a sustainable business on YouTube, with homework, slides and recorded office hours. | Course | $55 Checked Sep 14, 2026 | View |
| The Financial Diet: A Total Beginner's Guide to Getting Good with Money Beginner personal finance book on budgeting, credit and investing, co-written with Lauren Ver Hage (Holt Paperbacks, 2018). | Book | Not published Checked Sep 14, 2026 | View |
| Having People Over Guide to planning, hosting and attending gatherings (Ten Speed Press, 2025). | Book | $30 Checked Sep 14, 2026 | View |
| The Studio at TFD workshops Live virtual workshops co-hosted by Fagan with guest experts, including a worksheet, live Q&A and recording; the 2020 editions cost $10. | Event | $10 Checked Sep 14, 2026 | View |
| How To Build Wealth Workshop Two free masterclasses (101 and 201) with Chelsea Fagan and financial advisor Kellen Thayer, offered with Advisor.com. | Event | $0 Checked Sep 14, 2026 | View |
Prices are those published by the mentor on the date checked and may change. “Not published” means we couldn't find a public price.
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She is the founder and CEO of The Financial Diet, a personal finance media company she started in late 2014 as a budgeting blog and now runs from Manhattan. She has written The Financial Diet (2018) and Having People Over (2025).
How To Build A Real Business On YouTube is listed at $55.00 on TFD's Kit store. It is self-paced, with four modules, homework, slides and recorded office hours.
The Financial Diet: A Total Beginner's Guide to Getting Good with Money, co-written with Lauren Ver Hage (Holt Paperbacks, 2018), and Having People Over (Ten Speed Press, 2025, $30.00 hardcover list price). She also wrote the foreword to TFD's Beyond Getting By (2024).
Yes. TFD promotes two free wealth-building masterclasses with Chelsea Fagan and financial advisor Kellen Thayer through Advisor.com, and publishes free videos on its YouTube channel. Its Studio at TFD workshops have been paid; two in 2020 cost $10 each.
What can be verified: its books are released by major publishers (Macmillan and Penguin Random House imprints), its founder has been interviewed by outlets such as Cherwell and How I Built This Lab, and a September 14, 2026 web search found no court case or regulatory action under her name. Fagan is not presented as a licensed financial advisor.
No independent review of her YouTube course was located; press coverage consists mainly of interviews about TFD and its workplace policies.
Reviews are written by Mentor Explorer users, pass through a moderation filter and do not represent the site's editorial position. Some may be in other languages.
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