WEALTH FOR TOMORROW

Welcome to Wealth for Tomorrow! I went through college mostly making friends, working on my assignments and figuring out what to do with my life. I participated in clubs, took a couple international trips, switched majors, and had a few part time jobs. One thing I did not do was think about retirement and the long term effect my decisions had on my financial future.

Fast forward a few years and I am married, working a mid-level management job, and slowly paying back the 10’s of thousands of student loan debt from my wife’s and my education, all while trying to gather what I can for short term and retirement savings.

Not surprisingly, shortly after joining the workforce and living on my own, I began thinking more seriously about the future and what it would be like to have the freedom to do whatever I wanted, whenever I wanted, without being hampered by finances.

I knew that if I was serious about getting to this point of bliss I would have to do my research. I began reading financial books, countless articles, blogs and posts. I started listening to financial podcasts on my way to work, and scouring through investing websites. I watched documentaries that I thought would be helpful and even looked up successful people online to learn their stories and what they did to get there.

I learned a lot. Not enough to turn back the clock, but enough to start making good financial decisions and jump start my journey to financial independence. As I continued to learn and move forward with my financial goals, I began to realize many of my friends and people around me did not know about the basic and essential vehicles necessary to saving and investing. It was legitimately difficult for me to see how little people knew about what I had become so passionate about!

Wealth for Tomorrow is both a personal project to continually educate and motivate myself to reach my financial goals and my way of helping others reach theirs by sharing my life experiences and knowledge.

 

Inspiration for Wealth for Tomorrow

I was blessed to be raised by two loving parents. My basic needs were always provided for, and then some. However, after high school I moved away for college and was pretty much on my own financially (for the record, my parents did help me pay for college and I did live with some friends and family for a couple years for which I am extremely grateful).

Fast forward four years and the good news is I got a degree. The bad news is I took on debt to cover the last three years of school. Ouch. Fast forward one more year and I am married to my college girlfriend and love of my life. We decided to combine all our finances (or lack thereof) which of course included our debt which she also had from undergrad and later a master’s degree. All in all, our school debt bill totaled about… just under $200k. Double ouch.

The weight of the situation began to dawn on me and I became determined to get out of the hole crater we had dug. I started planning the rebuilding of the financial wreckage we had found ourselves post-school.

Fast forward one more time and we are making progress. My wife and I are developing in our careers, contributing to retirement accounts, and paying down debt. I have quickly become the annoying friend who asks if you have a 401k, what kind of rate you got on your loans, and if you have opened up a Roth IRA. My main hobbies have gone from doing things like fantasy basketball and binge watching random shows to learning about finance and investing, and now this blog. I am inspired and excited to start Wealth for Tomorrow because the things I plan on bringing to the table are topics I am so passionate about.

 

Mission

Earn, save, and invest today to have wealth for tomorrow.

I am founding this blog with a few goals:

• Transparency- I will be painfully honest with my financial past, decisions, and current situations. A void I have noticed in the financial community is someone who is in the earlier stages of their financial journey and more relatable to my (and I feel like the majority of people’s) current situations. A section of the blog will be devoted to tracking my earning, spending, and net worth. I am hoping this will be both encouraging and eye opening to you.
• Motivation- The psychological aspect of saving and investing is no joke. I understand a lot of people do not invest because it is just so dang hard to be at the bottom of a mountain and just start climbing, knowing there is a long and twisting road ahead. There are some great financial bloggers out there and I’d like to think I am like some of them, except a few years earlier in my financial journey. I will motivate you to keep climbing the mountain, no matter what point you are starting at.
• Learning- I do not see much point in any of this if no one is learning anything. I will gladly share my research and experiences for your benefit and expect to learn from what you have to say as well.
• Community- This is closely tied to “motivation”, but it is a lot more. There is something unique and powerful about actual people coming together to learn and feed off each other in a positive, non-judgmental way with common goals.

 

My Dream

A few years ago when thinking about the size of retirement fund my family and I would need, I thought, “what if we had enough invested where we could live off the interest alone for the rest of our lives, leaving the portfolio as something that could continue to grow and be passed down from generation to generation?” What if I could build something that could  give my kids and grand kids the opportunity to do things that I could not due to financial limitations, while also teaching them the value of investing and planning for the future?

So yes, this is my goal. To create a legacy to pass on for generations. One that will continue to give, teach, and create opportunity. The older I get, the more I realize the value of having freedom with your time. I strive towards the day when I have the privilege to be with my family and friends as much as I want, the freedom to travel any time, or the opportunity to pursue my passions full time.

It is a large mountain to climb but I am determined and ready. No amount of work is too much to provide your family and future generations with Wealth for EVERY Tomorrow.

Thank you for joining me in this journey.