Background
I was born in Atlanta, GA in 1998 – I’m only in my late 20s, so what do I know?
That’s a great point. I don’t claim to be right about anything, but I have been through a few experiences which I think are fairly unique and have taught me a lot. This site is certainly not to tell you what to do. If anything I hope to open a dialogue of sorts and share what I’ve learned. Most importantly, I’d like to learn from you.
A little bit about my career so far. I studied at the University of Georgia and earned my degree in Management Information Systems. I accepted a management job in a fulfillment center shortly after and made a transition into tech 2 years later. Currently, I support large commercial customers helping them troubleshoot and setup workloads on the cloud.
So far I’ve earned my AWS Solutions Architect Associate and Professional Certifications. I’ve got plenty I still want to earn for the sake of addressing my knowledge gaps:
> AWS Advanced Networking – Specialty
> AWS Machine Learning – Specialty
> AWS Data Engineer – Associate
> Certified Kubernetes Administrator
I’ll discover the rest as I continue to identify opportunities and skill gaps. Point being, I’ve put in some work and continue to learn and develop every day. Working at one of the largest cloud providers in the world, developing peers, and interviewing, I think I have a fair bit of knowledge on what it takes to get into this industry.
Financially, I put myself through college and currently have 60K in student debt. At my peak I had just at 100K in debt and credit score of barely 600. I’ve worked since the day I could drive shortly after my 16th birthday and I’ve educated myself on finance and FIRE through books from the prominent voices in the industry. I’ve gone from over 20K in credit card debt in 2021 to 0 credit card debt and building an emergency fund of over 15K, all while continuing to pay off my car, my student loans, and living enough to say, “Life is good.”
There’s not too many friends in my circle with whom I can discuss financial independence or early retirement at length. Most of them think I’m crazy, but I’ve just got to share my thoughts somewhere. I’m far too passionate about this to keep it all in. So, I hope you’ll learn something or be inspired, or feel encouraged to share a bit about your journey with me.
I don’t have all the knowledge, but I’ve got an aptitude for learning. I spend most every day min/maxing my budget and future 6 months at a time, so you could argue I’m a bit obsessed with these things. I hope you can learn from my experiences and be better off than I am. There’s simply not enough financial education in the US. Money is freedom, and we all deserve that.
