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Barbara Friedberg

Investing Expert Writer

About

Friedberg is a former investment portfolio manager, university finance instructor and author of three books including "Personal Finance; An Encyclopedia of Modern Money Management." Her work has been featured in national investment publications such as Forbes Advisor, Investopedia, U.S.News and World Report, Yahoo Finance, GoBankingRates and InvestorPlace. She is a regular panelist on the Money Tree Investing Podcast and owns BarbaraFriedbergPersonalFinance.com.

After receiving her bachelor’s degree in economics, Barbara Friedberg began investing to build wealth and turn her family’s earnings into future wealth. She studied investment theory and practice and served as an investment portfolio manager for a real estate holding company for several decades. She is a value-oriented investor and bought and sold individual stocks and fixed income assets on behalf of the company. Barbara consulted on real estate transactions and management for the firm and flipped real estate on the side.

After obtaining a master’s degree in business, with a focus on finance and investing, Barbara taught finance and investing classes at Santa Clara University and Lebanon Valley College.

In her desire to teach others how to build wealth with well-documented investment strategies she started her company, Wealth Media LLC. She created and manages BarbaraFriedbergPersonalFinance.com, where she instructs others in smart investing. She is the editor/author of “Personal Finance; An Encyclopedia of Modern Money Management,” “Invest and Beat the Pros” and “How to Get Rich; Without Winning the Lottery.” Her RoboAdvisorPros.com website was recently sold.

For the past decade, Friedberg has written across the internet about investing, real estate and financial topics. She has been published and cited in major publications such as Money Magazine, Nasdaq.com, Investor’s Business Daily, Investopedia, The Balance, GoBankingRates, InvestorPlace, MSN Money, Entrepreneur along with Forbes Advisor. You can find her opining as a panelist on The Money Tree Investing Podcast on a regular basis.

In her spare time you’ll find Friedberg with a power tool in hand, upscaling her home and spending time with her husband, Bob, and daughter and son-in-law, Rebecca and Brandon.

Expertise

  • Investing expert
  • Index fund investing
  • Robo-advisors
  • Best investment platforms
  • Best ETFs
  • Best mutual funds
  • Real estate investing

Achievements

  • Decades of experience as an investment portfolio manager
  • Former university finance and investment instructor
  • Investment journalist for major publications across the web

Other Publications

Education

Penn State (MBA, Finance and Investing)

Miami University (M.S., Counseling and Student Personnel Management)

University of Cincinnati (B.S., Economics)

  • 9 Best Real Estate Mutual Funds Of 2025

    Real estate is a reliable asset class commonly found in diversified investment portfolios. While real estate mutual funds don't lead in price appreciation or income generation among Morningstar fund categories, they provide an excellent balance of both over time. Currently,...
    9 Best Real Estate Mutual Funds Of 2025
  • 5 Best Currency ETFs

    Currency ETFs provide investors with a simple way to invest in foreign exchange markets, where traders bet on the performance of different international currencies. This sophisticated investment class is not for the faint of heart, and it demands a good...
    5 Best Currency ETFs
  • 7 Best Volatility ETFs Of 2025

    Stock prices rise and fall constantly, sometimes by a lot. That’s the nature of the stock market, and it’s also a good definition of volatility. Professional investors use volatility ETFs to profit from the endless churn of stock prices or...
    7 Best Volatility ETFs Of 2025
  • 10 Best High-Yield Bond Funds Of 2025

    In a world of ever-evolving financial landscapes, the quest for reliable income and capital growth is constant. Enter the high yield bond fund—an investment option that promises impressive cash flow, a relatively high degree of price stability and instant diversification....
    10 Best High-Yield Bond Funds Of 2025
  • 6 Best Large-Cap Index Funds Of 2025

    Buying large-cap stocks could be one of the safest equity investments offered by the stock market. Many if not most of these massive stocks provide decent dividends and growth potential, plus a lot less volatility than other corners of the...
    6 Best Large-Cap Index Funds Of 2025
  • 6 Best ETFs For Inflation

    Predicting which individual stocks and market sectors will outperform during periods of rising prices can be tricky. Thankfully, there are well-diversified exchange-traded funds (ETFs) specifically designed to help you cope with the impact of high inflation on your investment portfolio....
    6 Best ETFs For Inflation
  • 7 Best Balanced ETFs

    Finding the right balance of assets for your portfolio is at the heart of investing. Balanced funds offer an easy shortcut, providing a professionally managed, diversified portfolio of stocks, bonds and other assets in a single low-cost fund. Our list...
    7 Best Balanced ETFs
  • Best Total Bond Market Index Funds Of 2025

    You know you should be investing in fixed income, but the bond market can be a challenging puzzle for many people. Choosing a total market bond index fund is an easy way to answer this riddle. When you own shares...
    Best Total Bond Market Index Funds Of 2025
  • 10 Best Short-Term Bond ETFs Of 2025

    To help investors make the most of their fixed income allocation, Forbes Advisor has created this list of the best short-term bond ETFs. You’ll find a range of funds spanning extremely short maturities of less than a year up to...
    10 Best Short-Term Bond ETFs Of 2025
  • 6 Best Small-Cap Index Funds Of 2025

    Small-cap stocks are among the most volatile equity investments, although they can reward investors with the potential for higher growth rates than their larger competitors. Over the longer term, small-cap index funds have delivered superior returns to their large-cap brethren....
    6 Best Small-Cap Index Funds Of 2025
  • 10 Best Fidelity Mutual Funds Of 2025

    Selecting the best Fidelity mutual funds is no easy task. The Boston-based fund giant runs about 575 funds, catering to everyone from retail investors to members of 401(k) plans and customers of financial advisors. It’s a challenge to choose the...
    10 Best Fidelity Mutual Funds Of 2025
  • 10 Best ETFs Of 2025

    Selecting the ten best exchange-traded funds from a pool of thousands is akin to picking the ten most beautiful beaches on earth. There are too many to choose from, and everyone has their own unique preferences. Forbes Advisor tackled this...
    10 Best ETFs Of 2025
  • 9 Best Real Estate ETFs Of 2025

    Buying real estate ETFs—often in the form of REITs—is an easy and affordable path to exposing your portfolio to the real estate market. Since REITs are required by law to pay out 90% of their taxable income annually, these funds...
    9 Best Real Estate ETFs Of 2025
  • 7 Best Target Date Funds For Retirement Of 2025

    Target date funds are designed to simplify retirement investing. When you purchase a target date fund, you get a diversified portfolio of stocks and bonds that gradually adjusts its asset allocation from risky to conservative as you get closer to...
    7 Best Target Date Funds For Retirement Of 2025
  • 9 Best Retirement Income Funds

    One of the big challenges of retirement investing is balancing your need for income against your desire to keep generating growth. The best retirement income funds give you both stable cash flow after you retire and decent capital appreciation. Among...
    9 Best Retirement Income Funds
  • 10 Best Mutual Funds Of 2025

    A first-rate mutual fund portfolio is diversified. It holds funds focusing on U.S. stocks and bonds as well as international securities. It offers both growth and value stocks as well as passively managed funds and active funds. Most importantly, however,...
    10 Best Mutual Funds Of 2025
  • 7 Best Small-Cap ETFs of 2025

    Small-cap stocks offer big advantages for your investment portfolio. Nimble, small companies grow faster than large-cap firms, and they can deliver higher returns when markets are rising. Just keep in mind that small-cap outperformance also comes with greater volatility and...
    7 Best Small-Cap ETFs of 2025
  • Best Inverse ETFs Of 2025

    Inverse ETFs aim for performance that is the mirror-image opposite of their target, customarily an index. Their investments are reset daily. They typically make hefty use of borrowing, which is how they achieve multiples of inverse performance. But that multiplies...
    Best Inverse ETFs Of 2025
  • 10 Best Technology Mutual Funds Of 2025

    Over the past 10 years, the technology sector has enjoyed stratospheric performance. You can’t even match the tech funds category with a typical S&P 500 index fund. But which individual technology mutual funds suits you best? We combed the tech...
    10 Best Technology Mutual Funds Of 2025
  • Best Portfolio Management Apps Of 2025

    Picking the right assets and aligning your allocation with your goals can be tough. An investing app for portfolio management–often called an investment portfolio management app–can make that job a lot easier. Countless options are available, from simple free apps...
    Best Portfolio Management Apps Of 2025
  • The Best Value ETFs Of 2025

    Value exchange-traded funds simplify the challenging, research-intensive process of finding stocks that are underpriced by markets. Value stocks trade at prices below their perceived intrinsic value, which is just another way of saying that they can be great bargains. Our...
    The Best Value ETFs Of 2025
  • Best Total Stock Market Index Funds Of 2025

    Not every total stock market fund is the same—different funds track different underlying indexes, and they employ varying methodologies to mirror the U.S. stock market. Forbes Advisor has analyzed dozens of options to build this list of the best U.S....
    Best Total Stock Market Index Funds Of 2025
  • Best SPDR ETFs

    State Street Global Advisors launched the world’s first exchange-traded fund (ETF)—the SPDR S&P 500 fund (SPY)—in 1993. Today, the firm offers about 200 of the most highly regarded ETFs on the U.S. market, an extensive line-up of low-fee funds that...
    Best SPDR ETFs
  • 9 Best Long-Term Bond ETFs Of 2025

    Long-term bond ETFs own diversified portfolios of bonds with maturities of 10 years or longer. Our list of the best long-term bond ETFs can also help you find ETFs whose decent yields—ranging from above 3% to around 6%—can help you...
    9 Best Long-Term Bond ETFs Of 2025
  • 7 Best iShares ETFs Of 2025

    With more than 400 funds to choose from in the U.S., there’s something for every investor in the iShares ETF fund family. Financial services giant BlackRock launched the first iShares ETFs in 1996. Since then, it has become the largest...
    7 Best iShares ETFs Of 2025
  • The Best ESG Funds Of 2025

    While some critics condemn ESG funds as “woke” investing, regular investors' appetites remain strong for these funds, which consider the environmental, social and governance factors of a portfolio's companies along with the companies' financial fundamentals. To help you find the...
    The Best ESG Funds Of 2025
  • 7 Best Fidelity ETFs Of 2025

    Fidelity Investments offers a compact selection of about 65 exchange-traded funds (ETFs) in the U.S. Its line-up includes both passive funds and actively managed ETFs, with a nod toward factor and theme investing. Investors can meet most of their ETF...
    7 Best Fidelity ETFs Of 2025
  • 7 Best Charles Schwab Mutual Funds Of 2025

    Best known as a brokerage and fund supermarket, Schwab runs $692 billion worth of its own funds. That ranks the company among the 10 largest fund families in total net assets. That heft is the crux of Schwab’s ability to...
    7 Best Charles Schwab Mutual Funds Of 2025
  • 7 Best Charles Schwab ETFs Of 2025

    Charles Schwab is one of the world’s leading financial services companies. It offers a niche selection of around 30 proprietary exchange-traded funds that run the gamut from passive index funds to international stocks, with a very strong focus on fundamental...
    7 Best Charles Schwab ETFs Of 2025
  • 10 Best Bond ETFs Of 2025

    Bonds are a core component of any well-diversified investment portfolio. Their role is two-fold: To generate income and bolster returns during market declines. In 2022, bonds reminded investors of their utility as shock-absorbers, with most fixed income categories losing less...
    10 Best Bond ETFs Of 2025
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Top Picks From Barbara Friedberg

  • 7 Best Balanced ETFs
    7 Best Balanced ETFs

    by Barbara Friedberg

    Read More

  • 10 Best Growth ETFs Of 2025
    10 Best Growth ETFs Of 2025

    by Barbara Friedberg

    Read More

  • The Best Value ETFs Of 2025
    The Best Value ETFs Of 2025

    by Barbara Friedberg

    Read More

About

Friedberg is a former investment portfolio manager, university finance instructor and author of three books including "Personal Finance; An Encyclopedia of Modern Money Management." Her work has been featured in national investment publications such as Forbes Advisor, Investopedia, U.S.News and World Report, Yahoo Finance, GoBankingRates and InvestorPlace. She is a regular panelist on the Money Tree Investing Podcast and owns BarbaraFriedbergPersonalFinance.com.