My Catalyst

“Make one move and I will blow your fucking head off.” I know, that is a weird first line to a financial blog, but that is how my personal finance journey started. I’d like to think we all have our own individual catalyst that starts us down the road to personal finance growth and the pursuit of financial freedom. Mine was this moment. I was staring down the barrel of a federal agent’s rifle, and he was threatening to pull the trigger. It was this moment that led me to a blank canvas, where I had to start my life over and rebuild myself, my career, and my personal finance goals. Having a federal agent threaten to blow my head off portrays a significantly more exciting life than the one I had actually led until this incident. The reality is that this was my very first run in with the law. I was 21 years old, and I felt on top of the world up until that moment. I had just been promoted to become the youngest General Manager in the restaurant chain I worked for, and was given a raise to $55,000 per year. I owned a cleaning company with my best friends that was netting me another $6,000 per year, and I considered myself an “expert” day trader whose stock trading account had grown from $2,000 to just over $10,000 in a few short months. I was also 11-months into dating the most beautiful blonde I had ever met. Life was good - I was the master of my own world. All of my success, hopes, and dreams came crashing down in a matter of minutes. I was being arrested for being in the United States with an expired visa. I stayed in a federal prison for over two weeks, and later fought deportation for the better part of three years. During those three years, I was not allowed to work in any formal capacity. It was the scariest three years of my life, but I got to stay in America and eventually became a naturalized U.S. citizen. Even better still, I managed to keep and am now married to that beautiful blonde. My now wife was so traumatized by that ordeal, that she still doesn’t like when I talk about it. But today I say, with confidence, that this personal tragedy was one of the best things that has happened to me. I say this because it opened my eyes in so many critical ways, especially in a financial way. During this time of reflection, I realized a couple of critical things that would later help me define my “why” and guide my steps as I began rebuilding my life. I finally realized that it is not about how much money you make, it is about how much you’re able to keep. I was making OK money for a 21-year old, but I had nothing to show for it after my arrest other than my $10K trading account, which did not last me very long. I also realized as I started maturing further that as much as I wanted to start working towards financial independence, I didn’t want it to come at the expense of my time with my family. While my wife and I didn’t have kids yet at this point, I knew that the restaurant management career wasn’t going to be a good long term fit for our family because of all the night and weekend requirements. This initial posts gives you a quick understanding of my catalyst. I felt high on my early career success, only to have it all abruptly taken from me and having to start over. I look forward to sharing my next post, in which I’ll describe my path to get where I am now, and where I hope to be in the years to come. Spoiler alert: the stock market and real estate have a lot to do with my plan to achieve financial independence! Net worth at this point in my life (2011): $0