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Michelle Singletary Biography

Biography

Michelle Singletary is a nationally syndicated personal finance columnist for The Washington Post. Her award-winning column, “The Color of Money,” is carried in dozens of newspapers across the country.

She is the author of three books:

“The 21 Day Financial Fast: Your Path to Financial Peace and Free” (Zondervan)

“Your Money and Your Man: How You and Prince Charming Can Spend Well and Live Rich” (Random House).

“Spend Well, Live Rich: How to Live Well With the Money You Have” (Random House)

In January 2012, Singletary was part of the cast for “The Revolution,” a daytime program on ABC. She was the show’s financial expert and did regular money segments. For two years, Singletary was host of her own national television program “Singletary Says” on TV One.

In 2011, “Spend Well, Live Rich with Michelle Singletary,” an hour-long program, premiered on the PBS station WNED-TV Buffalo/Toronto.

For several years, Singletary was a regular personal finance contributor for National Public Radio’s afternoon program “Day To Day.” She is also a frequent contributor to various NPR programs including “1A,” “On Point,” “Weekend Edition,” and American Public Media’s “Marketplace Money.” She has appeared on all three major networks, NBC, ABC and CBS. She has prepared personal finance segments for local and national news programs, and for a number of cable and nationally syndicated programs, including “Oprah,” NBC’s “Today Show,” “The Early Show” on CBS, CNN, MSNBC, “The View, and “Tavis Smiley” on PBS. She has also appeared on “Meet The Press.”

As part of her commitment to community service, Singletary volunteers as the director of “Prosperity Partners Ministry,” a financial program she founded at her church, First Baptist Church of Glenarden (FBCG), in which women and men, who handle their money well, mentor others who are having financial challenges.

Singletary and her husband, Kevin, also volunteer in Maryland prisons to teach financial literacy to male and female prison inmates involved in a prerelease program. At FBCG’s The Institutes, Singletary and her husband teach a class called “Mastering Money In Marriage.” In 2010, Singletary was named Ministry Leader of the Year at FBCG, one of the largest churches in Prince George’s County with more than 15,000 members. She was recognized for her direction of Prosperity Partners and her prison volunteer work.

Singletary has written for the flagship “O, The Oprah Magazine.” For a time, she was the personal finance columnist for “O at Home” magazine. The quarterly magazine was a spinoff of the monthly “O, The Oprah Magazine.”

She is currently the host of a popular weekly live online chat on washingtonpost.com. She also writes two widely read weekly newsletters on retirement and personal finance, which are distributed by The Washington Post to 65,000 subscribers. In her column, chats, newsletters, television show and books Singletary delivers advice on personal finance issues that range from lending your honey money (Don’t do it!), to raising money smart kids (You can do it!) to the importance of saving and investing (You must do it!).

Her column won a prestigious award from the Society of American Business Editors and Writers. Singletary is the recipient of numerous national awards for her journalistic work. In 2005, she won the Consumer Federation of America Betty Furness Consumer Media Service Award. In 2013, The National Foundation for Credit Counseling honored her with the organization’s Making the Difference Award for her significant contributions toward advancing financial education in America. Consumer Action awarded her its 2014 Consumer Excellence Award in the media/press category. In 2015, she was the recipient of Generations United Media Award. She has also received the Distinguished Alumni Award from Johns Hopkins University.

In 2018, she won a Wharton Seminars for Business Journalist fellowship awarded by National Press Foundation to the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.

She is a graduate of the University of Maryland at College Park, and Johns Hopkins University, where she earned a master’s degree in business and management. Singletary and her husband reside in Maryland with their three children and dog, Simba.

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