🙌 On the latest episode of The Get Ready Money Podcast, I spoke with Romy Pickron, founder of Asset Achievers and co-founder of Reducify  about changing the way we think about money and making it accessible to everyone.

🧐 In this episode we discussed:

👉 Why you should have an accountability partner.

👉 The importance of aligning yourself with your goals.

👉 Changing your narrative by empowering yourself with positive financial affirmations.

👉 The financial impact of the racial and gender gaps.

🎥 Watch this episode below: 

 

🎧 Listen to the podcast below or on your favorite podcast app.

 

 

 

Connect with Romy Pickron:

Website: https://assetachievers.com/

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/romy-pickron/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/AssetAchiever

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/assetachievers/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/AssetAchievers/

App:

Reducify website: www.reducifyapp.com

Bio: Romy Pickron, CFP®, is the founder of Asset Achievers, a virtual financial management platform and the Co-founder of Reducify, a budding fintech app designed to accelerate student debt payoff. She’s on a mission to empower first generation wealth builders to achieve financial freedom. Romy is an active member of the Association of African American Financial Advisors (AAAA) and was recently awarded 50 under 50. She previously served as a panelist and mentor for the Thurgood Marshall College Institute and the United Negro College Fund (UNCF). She’s also been featured in NerdWallet and Feminist Magazine.

 

Full Episode Transcript:

 

You can watch or listen to the full conversation above, but if you prefer to read, we’ve included the complete episode transcript below. In it, Romy and I dive deeper into her journey from debt to financial freedom, the realities of the racial and gender wealth gaps, and practical steps you can take to build real, lasting wealth.

Are you looking to get ready, be prepared, and transform your financial future? Then you've come to the right place.

Welcome to the Get Ready Money Podcast with Tony Steuer, where Tony has insightful conversations with financial experts who are changing the way we think about money.

In each episode, you can catch up on the latest financial trends and hear practical advice from Tony and his expert guests, so you can build healthy money habits that work. You’ll get tips for implementing small changes that can have a big impact on your financial life.

So sit back and get ready to hear from today’s guest.

Making Wealth Accessible To Everyone
Guest: Romy Pickron, Cofounder of REDUCEFI and CEO of Asset Achievers

In this episode, Tony Steuer is joined by Romy Pickron, cofounder of REDUCEFI and founder and CEO of Asset Achievers. Romy shares her journey from debt to financial freedom, why financial literacy matters so much, and how we can make real wealth more accessible to everyone.

Romy’s Origin Story: From Debt To Financial Freedom

Tony opens every episode with the same question: What is your origin story?

For Romy, the story is both deep and complex. It’s a combination of student loan debt, credit card debt, and then the ultimate triumph of paying off everything and becoming financially free.

Her foundation in financial principles goes back to childhood. Her mother was a good steward of money and gave Romy an allowance. That one simple act changed the trajectory of her life. With that allowance, Romy learned the basics of money: how to budget, how to make trade-offs, and how to live within limits.

Despite that early foundation, Romy later found herself in credit card debt, driven partly by not fully understanding credit and interest rates. On top of that came student loans.

Together with her partner and future REDUCEFI cofounder, she created a strategic payoff plan. They paid off 130,000 dollars of student loan debt in just two and a half years, crushing the average payoff timeframe of 20 to 40 years.

That journey took Romy from a negative net worth to a positive net worth and ultimately to financial freedom.

The Power Of Financial Role Models

Tony relates to Romy’s story, sharing his own experience of struggling with credit card debt in college and after graduation. Like many people, he didn’t fully grasp the long-term costs of making only the minimum payments.

He highlights something important in Romy’s story: her mother was a positive financial role model, and that set Romy up for success. We don’t talk about that enough.

If we’re serious about breaking the cycle of generational poverty and building generational wealth, we have to look at how parents model money for their children.

Romy sees this clearly in her work. One of the biggest issues is that American society is not financially literate. Parents often don’t have the information they need, so they can’t pass it on. The result is a perpetual cycle: parents don’t know, children don’t learn, and the pattern repeats.

Only about 25 states currently require some kind of financial literacy course in high school. That means students in most states are missing out on crucial information. When both parents and schools fail to teach this, it feeds a cycle of financial struggle and generational poverty.

Why Financial Literacy Belongs In Every School

Tony points out how surprising it is that financial literacy isn’t part of the basic school curriculum. We teach many things that students won’t use daily, yet avoid one of the most fundamental life skills: managing money.

Romy agrees. She believes making wealth accessible starts with having more of these conversations and making financial literacy a requirement in every high school in every state.

By age eighteen, most young adults can open a credit card and make serious financial decisions. Yet many don’t understand:

- How credit cards actually work
- What interest rates mean
- How to calculate payments
- How to avoid fees and unnecessary interest

If we teach these concepts before students are out on their own, we give them a real chance to avoid mistakes that could impact them for decades.

The Link Between Math And Money

One part of Romy’s message hits Tony in a new way: the word “calculations.” It raises an important question: if so many Americans struggle with math, how much does that affect their financial literacy?

Romy’s view is clear: the connection is strong.

Everyday financial decisions require some level of calculation:

- Credit card balances and interest
- Car payments
- Student loans
- Mortgages and rent
- Budgeting and saving

The good news is you no longer have to do these calculations by hand. Smartphones and online calculators make it easier than ever to run the numbers. You can include interest rates, compounding, and fees with a few taps.

But many people are so intimidated by math that they avoid even basic calculations. That avoidance can become a barrier to understanding their money, even with tools that make the process much simpler.

The Birth Of REDUCEFI: Turning A Personal Battle Into A Tool For Others

Tony shifts the conversation to Romy’s work and asks what inspired her to launch the REDUCEFI app.

Again, it starts with her personal story.

The average American who attends a public university graduates with about 35,000 to 39,000 dollars in student loan debt. Those who attend private universities graduate with around 80,000 to 90,000 dollars on average.

Romy graduated with “average” student loan debt, in the mid-thirty-thousand-dollar range. But she saw friends, family, and colleagues carrying much heavier burdens: six figures and beyond. For many of them, that debt was holding them back from other wealth-building milestones.

Romy and her partner decided to approach their own student loans strategically. Together, they paid off 130,000 dollars in two and a half years. After researching the broader impact of student loans and the disproportionate burden on women, people of color, and especially Black Americans, they saw an opportunity.

They created REDUCEFI to help others:

- Understand their student loan situation
- Build a realistic payoff strategy
- Break the cycle of debt-driven financial struggle
- Move toward financial freedom

Accountability As A Financial Tool

One key part of Romy’s success story is partnership. Tony notes that she and her partner essentially acted as accountability partners for each other. He asks whether REDUCEFI aims to provide that same accountability.

Romy says yes. That’s one of the core ideas behind the app.

Student loans are confusing, and the system is often opaque. People need more than information; they need:

- Education
- Encouragement
- Accountability
- Practical tools

REDUCEFI is designed to bring people together, give them structure, and support them through a process that’s often overwhelming when tackled alone.

Why Student Debt Hits Women And People Of Color Harder

The conversation turns to a pressing question: why is college debt higher for women and people of color?

Romy doesn’t hesitate. It all comes back to the racial and gender wealth gaps in the United States.

Disparities in student loan debt closely mirror disparities in income and wealth. Romy explains that, on average, Black women earn about 66 cents for every dollar a white man earns. Over a 30-year career, research shows that this can add up to over a million dollars in lost income.

That’s the racial wealth gap in action: a million dollars missing over a working lifetime.

Tony underscores the point. While 50 percent and 60 percent aren’t the same, they’re close enough to reveal a sobering reality: many Black women are effectively living with something close to half the earnings power of a white male colleague.

That reality affects everything:

- Ability to repay student loans
- Capacity to save and invest
- Retirement readiness
- Ability to create generational wealth

Tony also shares a simple, powerful solution for employers: if women and people of color aren’t being paid the same as white men for the same work, pay them the same. No committee, no endless study. Just fix the pay.

One Simple Action Each Year: Automate Your Savings

As part of the “Get Ready” questions, Tony asks Romy:

What is one simple thing you can do each year to set yourself up for financial success?

Romy’s answer: automate your savings.

It’s a simple habit many people overlook, but it’s one of the most powerful. When you automate your savings:

- You pay yourself first
- Your money grows in the background
- You benefit from compound growth
- You remove the need for constant willpower

You can automate contributions to:

- A high-yield savings account
- Retirement accounts (like a 401(k) or IRA)
- Investment accounts

As your income grows, you can increase the percentage you save and invest over time.

Tony adds that, for those with access to an employer-sponsored 401(k), this is a perfect example of automation. At a minimum, he encourages listeners to contribute enough to earn the full employer match, since not doing so is essentially leaving free money on the table.

If you’re self-employed, you can still automate savings and investments using platforms like Schwab, Fidelity, Vanguard, and others.

A Weekly Money Habit That Changes Everything

Next, Tony asks Romy:

What is one habit people can change when it comes to their money?

Romy’s answer: set a regular schedule to review your money.

Most people only look closely at their accounts when something goes wrong:

- A charge is higher than expected
- A fee appears
- A payment bounces
- There isn’t enough money for an upcoming bill

Romy suggests a proactive approach instead. She has a weekly money review ritual. For her, it’s Saturday mornings around 10:30. She makes a cup of tea, sits down in a calm state, and reviews:

- Transactions from the week
- Whether spending stayed within budget
- Any signs of fraud or unexpected charges

This doesn’t have to be a big production. Often, 20 to 30 minutes is enough. The benefits are significant:

- You catch issues early
- You stay aware of your real spending
- You stay aligned with your budget and goals
- You feel more in control and less anxious about money

Tony notes that this kind of weekly check-in is at the heart of his own work as well. Regular, intentional reviews create momentum and confidence.

A Money Myth Romy Wants Everyone To Let Go Of

Tony then asks:

What money myth are you trying to break?

For Romy’s clients and followers, it’s the belief that wealth building is only for the already wealthy.

She calls this out as a myth, plain and simple.

Wealth building is available to anyone who is willing to:

- Learn
- Be strategic
- Stay disciplined
- Take consistent action over time

You can start from:

- A negative net worth
- A zero balance
- A difficult financial past

And still build toward wealth. Romy is living proof of that journey.

Advice To A Younger Self: Choose Assets Over Debt

Tony then invites Romy into a thought experiment:

If you could go back in time, knowing what you know now, what advice would you give your younger self about money?

Romy’s biggest financial regret is not investing in Facebook (now Meta) when it first went public at 22 dollars per share. Today, that stock trades in the hundreds.

At the time, Romy was starting her career as a stock trader at Fidelity Investments. She understood the markets and already knew, as a millennial and early Facebook user, how deeply integrated the platform was becoming in people’s lives.

Instead of investing meaningfully in assets like Facebook stock, she made a very common decision: she bought a new car for about 25,000 dollars, with a 400 dollar monthly payment. Looking back, she realizes she could have:

- Bought a less expensive car
- Split that 400 dollars into a smaller car payment and monthly investments

If she had consistently invested even half of that amount into Facebook stock at that time, she estimates she could easily have become a millionaire by now.

More broadly, her advice to her younger self is:

Invest more in assets, and less in debt.

Mindset Matters: Reprogramming Your Money Story

To close, Tony asks:

What is your number one tip on changing the way we think about money?

For Romy, it starts in the mind. If you grew up in an environment where money was scarce, stressful, or always a problem, you likely absorbed powerful negative money stories:

- “There’s never enough.”
- “I’ll always be in debt.”
- “People like me don’t become wealthy.”

Even after Romy became debt-free and built a positive net worth, she noticed those old thought patterns still surfaced. Sometimes she caught herself thinking, “I don’t have enough,” even when it wasn’t true.

Her solution is to reprogram those thoughts using:

- Positive financial affirmations
- Conscious awareness of negative self-talk
- A commitment to replace old stories with new ones

Examples she uses:

- “I do have enough.”
- “I have more than enough.”
- “I am wealthy.”
- “I am financially abundant.”

This mindset work isn’t a substitute for action. It’s a foundation that supports better decisions and consistent behavior. When you believe change is possible and that you’re capable and worthy of financial success, you’re far more likely to do the work that leads there.

Learn More About Romy And REDUCEFI

If you’d like to connect with Romy Pickron or learn more about her work:

- She’s on LinkedIn under her name, Romy Pickron
- She’s also at Asset Achievers on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Instagram
- You can find REDUCEFI App on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Instagram as well

Thank you for tuning in to this episode of the Get Ready Money Podcast with Tony Steuer.

Remember: the goal is to change the way we think about money so we can build healthier habits, stronger financial foundations, and a better future.

Until next time.