Hello!
My name is Jeremiah. I have a passion for personal finance that started at a very young age.
Coming from humble beginnings and the oldest of five children, I learned quickly that nothing was ever going to be handed to me. I found I would have to develop a savings plan to have enough to buy the things I wanted.
It started with basic concepts of budgeting, like saving up for that bike I wanted. Then, getting a used car and making payments. This was my introduction to debt. In my twenties, I started my career and began making a decent wage. I realized then that I needed to do something with the money I was making. But what?
That birthed a real pursuit to obtain knowledge about personal finance and then later, investing. As I recalled my experience and training around the topic of money and finance, I realized that I hardly knew anything. My parents budgeted well, but didn’t invest. We always seemed to just “get by.” In high school, we learned to balance a checkbook and learned the very basics about money and debt, even less on how the economy works. I realized that nothing I learned was good enough to really help me make good financial choices.
I started to read books on personal finance and investing. Not only did it ignite a fire in me to do better with my money, but it created a joy for reading I never had before. I plowed through books like my life depended on it. Twenty some years later, I still read new books on the subject.
Though out the years I have learned so much about money, budgeting, personal finance philosophies, and investing. This helped my wife and I to achieve FI (financial independence) at a young age. It also gave me a passion for teaching and coaching others. I love helping people explore the concepts of personal finance so they too can achieve FI. Furthermore, I believe we have an obligation to not only learn for ourselves, but to teach our children.
I woke up one day and realized, this is what I truly love. I have helped dozens of friends, fellow associates, and family members navigate the sometimes-turbulent waters of personal finance for many years. My focus being budgeting, financial optimization, and investing.
This isn’t about getting rich. In fact, it was never a primary goal of mine. It is about freedom. It’s about not being beholden to a job you don’t like. It’s about not being confined to live in one place, because of where you work. It’s about not having to work until a certain age.
Many of the books I read are written by an individual with a story to tell. I love it! It inspires and motivates. You get the opportunity to get inside the mind of another person to learn through their experiences, wins, and failures.
Although I too have a story to tell, I am starting here. Destination My FI is designed to be a place where I can lay out the concepts I have learned and shared with others. The intent is to be a place to dive into the world of personal finance. We will talk about many different aspects of work, money, budgeting, managing finances, investments, etc.
Glad you’re here! Welcome to Destination My FI!