What Is the Purpose of

First Quarter Finance?

First Quarter Finance (FQF) started in 2013 by providing financial information for the first quarter of life. We've grown to cover all ages. When you have a money question, turn to FQF.

Our Articles Have Been Featured In And Cited By

Why trust us?

Disclose

We disclose every instance where we could potentially receive a commission.

Feature

We feature the best companies, whether or not they pay us for referring customers.

Research standards

We follow academic research standards.

Long-term

We've been doing this since 2013.

Obsessed

We're obsessed.

Our team

Our team consists of experts. We adhere to strict, journal-quality academic standards. We follow a lengthy editorial/peer-review process before publishing. We regularly review articles and make any necessary changes.

Illustration of a finance research team collaborating.

Our Leadership Team

William Lipovsky

CEO and Editor-in-Chief

Will has been passionate about personal finance for as long as he can remember. He has been working for just as long. He bought his first mutual fund at age 10. Personal finance is his obsession, through and through.

He spent his early years after college working in banking and freelance writing. His articles and quotes have appeared in Business Insider, Entrepreneur, Forbes, U.S. News & World Report, and Yahoo Finance.

In 2013, William founded First Quarter Finance to help improve the finances of those in the First Quarter of Life. The website has expanded to become one of the largest personal finance brands for all stages of life.

William is CEO, editor in chief, owner, and founder of First Quarter Finance.

Lindsey Desmet

Managing Editor

Lindsey has a master's degree in library and information science, a graduate certificate in information management, and a bachelor's degree in liberal studies, where her areas of concentration were journalism, history, and literature. During her academic career, she was named an honor scholar and James B. Angell Scholar, was nominated to the Beta Phi Mu International Honor Society, and won two undergraduate writing awards.

As a contributor and editor at First Quarter Finance, Lindsey has researched many prominent companies, such as Ally Bank, Ashley Furniture, Best Buy, Capital One, CarMax, Discover, Enterprise, Kroger, Nordstrom, Overstock, Sam’s Club, Verizon, Visa, and Walmart. She conducts deep and thorough research to ensure that her articles, as well as all of FQF’s new and previously-published articles, contain accurate and up-to-date information. Her research often includes interviews; thorough readings of official documents like state and federal laws, corporate handbooks, and cardholder agreements; and first-hand contact with corporate and store representatives. Lindsey has expertise in retail store policies, consumer savings, personal finance, banking, loans, and credit cards.

Lindsey is passionate about research, the written word, and connecting people with the information they need. Her writing has been published in The Michigan Journal and on her classic film blog, TheMotionPictures.net. Lindsey is the Managing Editor at First Quarter Finance.

Erika Crawford

Contributing Editor

Erika holds a bachelor's degree in linguistics with concentrations in socio- and psycholinguistics and a minor in professional writing from The Ohio State University. She graduated summa cum laude and worked as a linguistics research assistant and a student reader for Ohio State's literary journal. Through her education in linguistics and professional writing, Erika became an expert in the areas of language learning and contact, accessibility, technical editing, and business writing.

Erika has worked in a variety of roles related to operations, finance, writing, and editing in both for-profit and nonprofit organizations. Much of her experience has been centered around grant writing, reporting, fundraising, and gift processing for multiple major nonprofit institutions. In every role, Erika has taken on the responsibilities of editing and proofreading, social media management, and writing internal and customer-facing content.

Erika is extremely passionate about lifelong learning, and she is constantly looking for opportunities to hone her editing skills. She devotes her time to studying and taking courses in user experience, ethnography, and publishing. In addition to being an editor at First Quarter Finance, Erika is also working to complete her first novel.

Alexandra Fowler

Lead Analyst

Alexandra earned a bachelor’s degree with distinction in behavioral neuroscience from the University of Kansas Honors Program and completed an original honors thesis for which she received three awards before even tossing her cap. Her research crosses multiple disciplines, including neuroscience, bankruptcy, and personal finance; has been published in several leading journals, including Neurology; and, has taken her all over the country to present. Alexandra leads the research team at First Quarter Finance.

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