Forget blaming the $5 latte. According to Yuval Shuminer, CEO of the fintech app Piere, the real money leak for many young professionals is far less visible—and far more costly.
Shuminer, a New Yorker accustomed to $7 coffees and $12 avocado toast, says lifestyle splurges aren’t the problem. Instead, she’s watched friends park tens of thousands of dollars in low-interest savings accounts, earning a meager 0.02%—while high-yield accounts have been offering around 4.5%. That difference, she says, can mean $10,000 or more in missed earnings.
When the economy tightened in 2022, layoffs prompted many of her peers to examine their finances. “We realized we were spending so much mental energy worrying about coffee,” Shuminer recalls. “Meanwhile, the big money mistakes were happening quietly in the background.”
With a background in behavioral economics, she launched Piere in December 2023 to flip the script. Instead of restricting small joys, Piere automates financial optimization—constantly scanning for better savings rates, eliminating unnecessary fees, and making money work harder without constant user effort.
Shuminer says most of her users are lower- or middle-income earners who never learned strategic money management. The sheer number of financial options, coupled with inertia and anxiety, often leads to inaction. “Because of those frictions, people leave free money on the table,” she explains.
Her philosophy is simple: money is a tool to create value and improve life, not just something to hoard. Even small investments matter. Putting aside $10 to $100 a month can snowball into significant wealth through compounding, she notes, yet too many people only grasp this “hidden secret” when it’s too late.
By focusing less on cutting the small pleasures and more on optimizing the big levers, Shuminer believes young professionals can stop bleeding cash—and start building futures that are both financially secure and enjoyable.
