Brian O'Connell

Expertise: Investing, fintech, bonds
Education: University of Massachusetts Amherst
Location: Doylestown, Pennsylvania

Highlights

  • Brian O'Connell is a former Wall Street bond trader who now writes about investing and personal finance
  • He has over 20 years of experience covering business news and trends, as well as finance, technology, politics, and career management
  • In addition to his work for The Balance, Brian has been featured in CBS News, Bloomberg, Time, MSN Money, The Wall Street Journal, CNBC, TheStreet.com, Yahoo! Finance, and MarketWatch

Experience

Brian O’Connell parlayed a stint as a Wall Street bond trader (starting as an over-the-counter trader for Kidder Peabody and later as a corporate bond trader for Delaware Funds) into career as a business and personal finance journalist and writer. Brian currently serves as one of the lead personal finance writers for U.S. News & World Report. He also writes a regular personal finance/banking and credit column for Jim Cramer at TheStreet.com and has written regularly for CNBC’s “Mad Money.”

Brian  contributes regularly to other publications including CBSNews.com, Time.com, MSN.com, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Bloomberg Enterprise, The Wall Street Journal, and Yahoo! Finance.

In addition to his published journalism, Brian has authored several personal finance-related books, including two investment books: “The 401(k) Millionaire” and “CNBC’s Creating Wealth." 

Education

​Brian received his B.A. in journalism from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst.

About The Balance

The Balance, a Dotdash Meredith brand, makes money easy to understand. We give people tools they need to not only make smart financial decisions but also prepare for the experiences they will have along the way. Our team of expert writers and editors have extensive qualifications in the topics they cover, and many of them have MBAs, PhDs, CFPs, and other advanced degrees and professional certifications. We require our writers to use primary sources in their articles, which are also approved by our Financial Review Board and fact-checked. You can learn more about the standards we follow in producing accurate, unbiased content in our editorial policy.