My Story

Hello, I’m Chris.

My journey into personal finance started when I was 22 years old. My wife and I had just married, and we moved to the world’s smallest inhabited atoll in the Pacific, where we taught English for a year through a non-profit. I don’t think I was a great teacher, but I used my free time reading every book family could send on personal finance, investing, real estate and business.

In 2014, we started our lives back in the US with $2000, $50k in student loan debt, and a laundry basket full of clothes. My wife landed a job as a teacher making $38k per year, and I eventually got a job as a counselor in a state prison making $34,444 per year.

Fast forward nine years later to 2023, and we have 3 kids, my wife is finishing her PhD (in teacher education), we are debt free (outside of mortgages), we own multiple properties, and we have bought and sold dozens more. We’ve been frugal, but have also traveled to places like India, Ireland, Costa Rica and the Dominican Republic.

Neither of us have ever had six figure salaries, trust funds, or monetary support from families. Rather, we’ve been diligent and consistent in our efforts to become financially free.

There are a lot of other people out there who are more successful than I am, but I’m proud of where we are and what we’ve accomplished.

Using a combination of AI and experience, my hope through this blog is to share what I’ve learned about investing, saving, borrowing, and growing money to help others with their personal finance journey.

Good luck, and I know you can do it.

-Chris