Kathy Kristof is an award-winning financial writer and editor, who has spent a career making complex financial topics understandable. And in the process, she helped change law and policy in ways that improved people’s lives.
Kristof’s career
For 20 years, Kristof’s syndicated personal finance column appeared in more than 50 newspapers nationwide, reaching more than 40 million readers. These columns provided practical advice on everything from credit cards to investing, helping millions better manage their money.
A series of stories she wrote for the Los Angeles Times sparked scrutiny of widespread law violations with company retirement plans. The subsequent furor ignited litigation and reimbursements for hundreds of thousands of workers. It also forced companies to offer better and lower-cost investment options in their 401(k) plans. That change continues today.
An expose she wrote about predatory practices in the sale of private student loans also changed federal law. Today borrowers get clear disclosures about student loan interest rates before signing on the dotted line. Prior to Kristof’s expose, student borrowers were often denied any disclosure of loan interest rates prior to committing.
A story she wrote for Forbes, called The Great College Hoax, exposed the massive rise in the cost of college and the declining value of that education. Another series of stories she wrote pressured the state of California to revamp its “unclaimed property” division. Now individuals are warned before their property — most notably the valuables they hold in safe deposit boxes — is seized due to lack of activity.
Launch of SideHusl.com
While writing personal finance stories for CBS News and Reuters, she began to research money-making opportunities offered through side gig platforms like Uber and Instacart. Kristof discovered that workers fundamentally misunderstood the jobs offered through these so-called “gig” platforms, believing they were governed by labor laws like most other jobs. .
But they’re not. These relationships are governed solely by contracts. And many companies take advantage of this consumer misunderstanding by enlisting workers with misleading promises.
Believing that consumers needed a Consumer Reports for these “gig” jobs, Kristof launched SideHusl.com in 2018.
The mission of SideHusl.com has been a simple one from the beginning— shine light on how these platforms work so consumers can differentiate the good guys from the liars. And because people who need side jobs don’t have an abundance of time, Kristof created a systematic snapshot — “The Basics” — that spells out the most important details in a glance.
Kristof was the recipient of a John Hancock Business Writing Award; the Consumer Federation of America’s Betty Furness Consumer Media Service Award; a California Alliance for Consumer Education award; as well as several other awards for her journalism. She was also part of two Pulitzer Prize Winning teams at the Los Angeles Times.
She is the author of three books — Investing 101; Taming the Tuition Tiger; and Kathy Kristof’s Complete Book of Dollars and Sense.