Paula Vanderhorst

Paula started writing about money the way she wished someone had taught it to her — through stories, not spreadsheets. After losing a meaningful chunk of her family’s retirement savings to an advisor who couldn’t be held responsible for the loss, she made a decision: enough. She would learn how to manage the money herself.

Fifteen-plus years later, she trades options for a living and writes the Practical Money journal — daily field notes on the stock market, individual trades, sector rotation, behavioral finance, and the discipline of letting a portfolio do its work.

Money Matters: The Novel is the story those notes came from. A family reckoning with money — what it buys, what it costs, and what it asks of the people who chase it. It’s how Paula teaches what fifteen years of trading taught her, in the format she wished existed when she started.

Paula isn’t a licensed financial advisor and isn’t endorsing any particular trade or strategy. She’s writing for people just starting out — the ones who want a sounding board and somewhere to ask ‘dumb’ questions, told plainly, without the gatekeeping.