I haven’t written from a particularly personal viewpoint on the blog yet, but I thought I should start.
I grew up fairly poor, so for most of my adult life I’ve felt this push towards financial stability. Largely because it was something that was so fleeting growing up. When I think of my financial goals over the past ten years they’ve largely been about making sacrifices, in order to benefit later.
Which has made the last six months so interesting. I had a massive change in plans come around in the spring; a job that I had felt would be a lifelong career suddenly wasn’t. It was a jarring experience but sometimes a shakeup can be really powerful.
Reflection can be hard, introspection usually is, but it’s key to figuring out what really matters. To be honest, I don’t know if I’ve figured everything out from such a big change, however what I have valued tremendously is having the time and space to figure it out, and that wouldn’t have been possible if it wasn’t for the decisions I’d made in the past.
Saying something like ‘setting financial goals is important’ sounds super lame, and it’s really hard to convey why that’s important. Unfortunately the point when it makes sense is usually connected to something bad happening, or at the very least unexpected.
Over the last six months I’ve gotten to do things I never would have imagined doing, I’ve been able to express myself in ways I never thought I could while talking about something that’s really important to me. I became a financial planner because I wanted to help people, which isn’t the usual path for most who study finance. Usually folks that want to help others go and do something more obviously impactful, but for me when I thought back to a lot of the trouble I’d had growing up I realized a lot of it could have been avoided if my parents had of had someone to help them make better choices.
So I wanted to be that someone.
I’ve learned that I want to be that someone without compromises, and that’s been purely because I’ve had some financial resources to make those changes in my life.
I’ve gone through a lot of upheaval but I’m really proud of where I am right now, and a lot of that’s because of the work my wife and I have done over the last decade. So when there was the opportunity I’ve been able to focus on what actually matters. Helping others, spending time with my family, especially welcoming our child, and being able to authentically express myself with no compromises.
No matter what’s going on in your life, if you can make better decisions for yourself, both present and future, then when something unexpected happens, as it happened to me. I sincerely hope you’ll be in a better place to make the changes to your life that you’ll value most.
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