Has taking control of your money and mastering your personal finances always been your mindset as an adult? Can you share the cliff notes version of your financial journey?

Not not really, in fact I didn’t really start caring until 2014 when I was 26 years old. I had a good mindset about paying bills on time, establishing good credit, and trying to save money. However, I never really cared much outside of those things, nor really payed attention to my savings, or knew anything about investing money.

Needless to say, I was ill prepared for a while to the point where I was living paycheck to paycheck, had little saved in case of an emergency, and really had no sense of financial direction.

In Summer 2014 I was starting to figure out what to do and what needed to change. A random conversation with a good friend who was already way ahead financially stoked the fire. He helped me learn a bit about Vanguard and then I took over the rest. I started reading tons of financial, investing, and entrepreneurial books to learn as much as I could.

I had no background prior to 2014, other than the very basics. Since then, I’ve been self-managing my retirement accounts, saving almost 60% of my income, and accelerated my career. It’s crazy to look back on the last 4 years.

My goal is never have to worry or be stressed about money. I already am less stressed, but I have a lot of work to do yet to get to full financial freedom. This year I will hopefully pass $100,000 saved and invested, which itself is a huge milestone. I don’t really plan on retiring early (an initial goal of mine), but I’ve since realized I rather be excited to say if I chose to retire, I could.

What strategies and tactics have you implemented in your to life to best set you up for financial success?

There is quite a few things I did, but some of these things have also shifted over the years. For most, there will be some overlap to what you should do, but some things might be more unique to my situation.

Be prepared to dive in and really see how bad your financial state might be. Looking at my loans, car payment, rent, bills, what I had saved, salary, etc. It was not pretty. But knowing your net worth and seeing where gaps were was a big eye-opener. I still track my net worth , but not as religiously like many do. For me, it was the necessary place to start to make me get on track.

I created a budget of everything that I pay and my total income each month. I never really did that before and basically just did any finances on the fly. Not good, because I overlooked some spending issues and things I was paying for that I could eliminate.

Started reading books on finances, investing, and money. It was the best way to learn, figure out what moves I needed to start making, and to keep my knowledge bank growing. Investing and finances tends to appear hard to learn, but while there is a lot to know, it’s much easier than you think.

Started doing some freelance, contract, and side hustle work in order to make extra money that could go to bills and savings. Up until 2015 from college, I never made more than $36,000/year. While I could save a bit more from learning about my spending and budget, I needed to make more. I took steps to improve my marketing knowledge and skill set, but during that time I took on paid contract or freelance work that could go towards saving more.

Built an emergency fund and made changes to my 401k. Once I was let go from my job in early December 2014, I rolled everything over to Vanguard. I started investing in low-cost index funds. At the same time, I started saving more money and once I had a few months cushioning, started doing more investing in Vanguard.

Have you made any major financial mistakes? If so, what was the outcome and what did you learn from these mistakes?

Oh man, who hasn’t right? But some make worse mistakes than others. I was pretty lucky in that yes, I did make some mistakes, but they ended up being the best financial education for me later in life.

A few mistakes I made:

Moved out of my parents house immediately after college with little saved for emergencies or much financial prep.

Bought a new car too soon when I had a low salary, two student loans, and was paying rent/utilities to live on my own.

I got too comfortable at a mediocre cubicle job that had a stagnant salary. I ended up leaving money on the table by not being more aggressive in my career. Then when I got too complacent, I was let go unexpectedly a few weeks before Christmas.

These mistakes and a few others I wrote about led me to that paycheck to paycheck lifestyle. But it also was a lesson and fire I needed to get me on the path I am today. At the time, I regretted these mistakes but as I got older I realized how these mistakes were needed.