Origin Story

I was born at an early age ... alright, maybe not quite that far back. The earliest memory I have of my desire to excel financially was watching the TV show Family Ties. I related to the character Alex P. Keaton (played by Michael J. Fox). From what I remember he was money conscious and business savvy. 

Throughout my youth I had many entrepreneurial starts (selling Popsicle sticks in elementary school, gaining a monopoly on Now and Laters at scout camp, etc). I could come up with ideas all day long and even start many ventures, but inevitably I would lose steam and my venture would fold.

I was also raised in a very financially conservative home. My parents had some unfortunate events early in my life that forced them to be extremely frugal. From seeing this I decided at an early age that I would make enough money that I wouldn't need to be so frugal (I've since decided there is a proper balance between frugality and living). I was raised to live within my means, budget, save, avoid debt, and all the great principles of financial frugality.

My favorite college class was American Heritage. Equivalent transfer credits from other colleges would need American History, Economics, and US Government. This course covered it all. But there was one lecture that impacted more than any of the others (and the others were very impactful). It was a discussion in finding your light and sharing it with the world. I have since heard this concept be referred to as your unique calling, your purpose, or your life mission. I have since come to understand that my life mission is to help people escape financial bondage.

I began to start learning (and trying) all sorts of financial techniques, practices, and ideologies. The first couple I "coached" (more I shared everything I had learned to that point during a three month period) actually became completely debt free before I did. There was one concept that really stuck with them and the lived that principle exactly and were greatly rewarded with a home they own outright and a much larger claim on their income.

Through all these ventures I picked up tidbits and principles here and there, but there wasn't anything that had all that much in one place. There was one book that I thought would be a terrific resource in helping people. It talked about getting your finances in order and then taking your excess cash flow and investing it. It has a lot of terrific information. The problem was the effect it had on people. I noticed people would get so excited about the second have of the book (investing) that they would ignore the first half (getting your finances in order). This had the effect of multiplying their bad money habits. 

Then I ran across the book Financial Fitness. It was wonderful. It included so many of the tidbits I had collected from various speakers, books, conferences, etc. It also laid out a path to implement them in a straightforward way. After reading the book through in its entirety, I made a commitment to stop adding to my debt. 

Yes, even though I had been raised to avoid debt, I had come to accumulate debt. I had practiced the concept of good debt (business debt, but turned out not to be so good), I had medical debt, mortgage, and car loans. I always paid my credit card bills every month, at least until I had a small emergency, and then the interest started racking up on credit cards. At one point (actually a couple of times) I started playing the game of getting 0% interest credit cards and then shuffling my debt around from card to card.

So now that I had resolved to stop adding to my debt, my resolve was tested. Our air conditioning died. This was not an uncommon occurrence (it died every summer) but this summer it was going to cost over $8,000 to fix. We didn't have $8,000 to fix it. If this had happened a year earlier, I would have just finances the repair justifying that air conditioning is a necessity in central Texas. 

But because I had read the book and resolved to not have any new debt, we didn't get it fixed that summer. We bought a couple of window A/C units and borrowed one or two others, and limped through the hot central Texas summer, saving money for the repairs. However, we didn't just limp through one summer, but through 3 hot Texas summers. 

This does not make for a happy wife (the children were generally OK, its funny how they are tough like that). This put more pressure on me to figure out the "money thing." We would start saving up for the A/C fix, and then some emergency would happen and drain our A/C fund. We just couldn't seem to save more than $3,000.

After the third summer I had had it (probably more so my wife had had it with me). I pulled out the Financial Fitness book, and this time I committed to do everything it said, whether I agreed with it or thought it was relevant to me or not. And I started with the cash envelope system.

So for three years we couldn't save up $8,000 to fix our air conditioner, but over the following three years we paid off all our debt (which peaked at over $200,000, including our mortgages), and then bought a house with cash (the house buying process is a lot easier when you pay cash, I highly recommend it). We're still not rich or even where we want to be, but it was a joyous milestone.

As I was getting close to paying off all our debt, I started realizing that so many people could benefit from this. I also found that there were some quirks in the book that hung me up for longer than it should have. I felt I needed to share what I had learned and help others through the process. That is when I started my financial coaching. 

Over the last few years, I've coached dozens of people. It has been wonderful to see the changes in their lives, but I've benefited just as much, learning as much from them as they have learned from me. All the different circumstances has caused me to research and learn more and increase my hunger for reading and learning everything I can to help people escape financial bondage.

That's my first origin story. The next phase of my origin story will be recorded here on this blog as it happens.

If you're looking to improve your finances, feel free to reach out to me. You can also join our Facebook group and join our community of people looking to improve their financial standing.

 What is your story? I love the quote from The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel, "In the end, everything will be ok. If it's not ok, it's not yet the end." Your story is still in progress. You are living your origin story right now. Make it a good one.