My Origin Story & Financial Journey – The Squire

I grew up in a loving family. As a kid, I enjoyed life and took school seriously. I played sports and stayed busy, and as expected, attended a local public university. I worked through most of high school and college in retail, and was able to save all of this money for college. When combined with help from my parents, we were able to cover my room and board for college without taking out any loans. At 22 years old, a few months after graduation I finally landed a job as an analyst.

Money was not a focus in my life. Based on how most friends were doing, and the fact that I graduated without any student loans, I felt that money wasn’t something I needed to worry about. I made it! I would just need to make sure that my checking account remained above zero, and it would be smooth sailing through my career.

After years of living with roommates in college, I was ready to finally live on my own, so I rented my very own one-bedroom apartment closer to my new job, and I scored my parents’ old car, so I was set!
I didn’t have a high paying job, but the people and work were enjoyable and fulfilling.

One thing I did remember from my high school money management class was that credit card companies charge huge fees, so I decided they weren’t for me. My paycheck was deposited into my checking account I had opened up in college, and I made sure to keep at least a couple hundred dollar cushion, only incurring an overdraft fee a couple times over the next few years.

I made my own lunches and dinners pretty frequently, but enjoyed stopping by stores and restaurants for a sense of community and a diversity of food. I also got a lot of joy stopping by music shops and purchasing used and new CDs, which I listened to on a regular basis. I didn’t spend money on too many items besides food and music, and I typically purchased store-brand products and usually went for the sale when given the choice. I was getting by, and felt justified spending all of the money I made. When I wanted to take a trip or attend a concert, I cut back on other spending and was able to make it work.

By my mid 20s, I was living in the same apartment and realized that I had no money saved. I had friends and family that seemed to be good with money, and were even willing and interested to talk about it with me, but I was good at math and could read, so I figured that I would be able to learn on my own what to do when I was ready. When money and saving were brought up in conversation, I would change the topic rather than admit my ignorance in the subject. I did finally ask a good friend for some beginning finance book recommendations and I actually purchased a few used books from the personal finance section, and forced myself to skim through them.

However, most of the material didn’t seem to apply to me due to the fact that I didn’t have much money in my checking account, let alone extra money to invest for any near-term or long-term goals. Although my friend and all the books talked about setting money aside early in your career, I didn’t feel that this line of thinking would apply to me. It didn’t make any sense to set aside money now for a retirement more than forty years away. I knew that I would have to work until 65 or 70, and that social security would probably only pay out a fraction of the current amount by the time I was retired. But retirement still seemed silly to think about in my mid 20s.

At 26, I finally realized a consequence of not having a credit card when I had to take out a car loan to replace the old family car, and needed my parents to co-sign. I didn’t have bad credit, just had no credit. Soon after taking out the car loan, I got my first credit card.

At 27, I started dating my future wife, and I finally realized that I wanted to start thinking about and planning for the future. We got married when I was 29, and by this point I had read several personal finance books and was regularly talking with my friend about saving and investing. I finally started to make incremental changes for the future, putting money aside for a house and potential kids, placing money into a retirement account, and still setting some aside for travel with my wife.

Soon, I started checking more finance books out at the library such as those by Eric Tyson and Daniel R Solin, along with newer books (at the time) like The Simple Path to Wealth and The Index Card. My friend finally convinced me to try out a couple podcasts, and I started listening to Stacking Benjamins, Afford Anything, and eventually ChooseFI. Although I’m not as high an earner or saver as most of the scenarios presented in these books and podcasts, I finally created a couple spreadsheets and plugged in my own numbers. I saw that even small contributions to investments over a long period of time could potentially give me that sense of being financially independent before I thought possible.

Now in mid 2024, I am into my 40s, we have two kids and a house, and we have been investing a bit each month, which is (ever so slowly) adding up. I’ve transitioned to an analyst job with a local government, which has good benefits, and a shorter commute. I continue to read finance books, listen to podcasts, and look through other resources that my friend has shared with me over the years. We are investing enough that despite the lack of action early on, we seem to be on pace to be financially independent in our fifties. We focus on enjoying life, and try not to let our jobs stress us out or take away too much time with our kids. Our journey to financial independence may be more than a decade away, but with small incremental changes, we are starting to see the benefits of a better peace of mind and trying to take more control over our time. We are looking forward to seeing where our financial journey takes us.

Links/Resources

• Eric Tyson
• Daniel R Solin
• J L Collins, “The Simple Path to Wealth”
• Helaine Olen and Harold Pollack, “The Index Card”
• Stacking Benjamins
• Afford Anything
• ChooseFI

Reader Questions

• Do you find yourself with not enough time to accomplish what you want by the end of the day/week/month? If so, what are you sacrificing?
• Are you more interested in making small or big money changes in your life? Why?

Leave your answers or comments below – or email us directly at info@epicfinancialjourney.com