Hello and Welcome
Here at Financially Grounded, I want to help you to become knowledgeable in the aspects of Personal Finance so that you can have a sure and balanced footing as you go through your own life journey. I am a husband of 23 years and a father of 3 young men.
So, why financially grounded?
My own financial education and journey started in my late 20s. I was in line at my credit union to deposit my paycheck. The line was really long, so I grabbed a pamphlet to read to pass the time. This pamphlet was about the Roth IRA and the ways in which the credit union could help to set one up. I had heard of the IRA before but didn’t know anything more than how to spell it.
I took the pamphlet home and read further about it. This was in 1999 and the Internet was just a fledgling group of websites. There were no blogs, no how-to articles, no YouTube. For me to learn more about the IRA, I needed a book, yes a physical book. I went to a local bookstore and purchased Personal Finance for Dummies©, by Eric Tyson. I then opened the Roth IRA at my credit union and began to read, thus starting my financial education in earnest.
I read through the Personal Finance for Dummies book quickly, which lead me to other books. As luck would have it, around this time I also met a financial planner from Edward Jones who began to work with me on a much more detailed level than the credit union did.
The credit union only had a few investment options available, but Edward Jones, being a full brokerage service, had many, many more to offer. I rolled my Roth IRA from the credit union, which only paid a point higher than a savings rate (around 4% at this time I believe) to a Roth IRA investing in mutual funds. This granted me the ability to earn a much higher rate of return on my money; at the cost of more risk.
The more I learned about the aspects of personal finance, the more I realized what I didn’t know about personal finance. I read whatever I could and listened to radio shows about finance and mortgages. I began to dig into insurance deeply as I had previously worked for Progressive Insurance as an underwriter for 3 years. My wife and I added life insurance to our own financial picture, life insurance in addition to what was provided by our jobs (1 to 1.5 times annual salary, not nearly enough).
I’ve been learning about finance and tweaking our financial picture for over 20 years now. I made mistakes along the way. Mistakes that cost me, not so much in money, but in time. It is the loss of time that I want to help you to prevent as you learn what I have and continue to learn with me.
We are in a very good financial place now and are looking forward to a wonderful life ahead, including vacations to where we want to go, not just where we can afford to go. Also, we are in a good position to have an enjoyable retirement and not to ever be a financial burden on our children.
I have no degree in finance nor certifications. I have the knowledge obtained from the school of hard knocks and life, which are usually more valuable than book knowledge. I actually have a degree in Computer Systems Management and work as the VP of Technology Services for CMIT Solutions of Austin, a Managed Service Provider that supports businesses from small to large in all of their IT needs. I have worked with computer systems from the 1980s to now.
So again, hello and welcome and thank you for coming to Financially Grounded. I hope you enjoy what you read and come away with a bit of new information. I like to say, “Any day you learn something new is a great day.”
