Welcome! I’m a 30-something from the Oregon Trail Generation, you know, the not-quite Millenials who got a Nokia candy bar phone when we learned to drive and didn’t have a home computer until 6th grade.

My journey into personal finance has been a long road that started back in 2007 when I bought Tim Ferriss’ The 4-Hour Workweek. After devouring his book, I quickly followed it up with The Magic of Thinking Big and How to Make Millions with Your Ideas. Then I purchased an iBook, an iPad, and an Apple Developer License and filed paperwork to form my LLC. While waiting to make my fortune, I accumulated student loan debt pursuing a PhD that I would never complete, and claimed business losses on my taxes for several years before shutting down my company. Ten years later I met Tim and got back the fire to follow his advice, “Work smart and play often.”

This blog is about my journey to financial independence and beyond. Like many people in the FIRE movement, I studied Math and Computer Science in undergrad followed by graduate studies in CS. I later dropped out of my PhD program to pursue a career as an engineer at a Big Four tech company. I made some financial mistakes as I transitioned from poor grad student to cash rich engineer, and have let lifestyle inflation hit my wallet pretty hard. Join me and we’ll learn together as I achieve my financial goals and forge a better lifestyle with my partner and our son.

My first goal is to join the two comma club. I will reach a $1M net worth 18 months from today.