Hi there! glad to have you on my blog. I am a big fan of personal finance and I am looking forward to sharing everything I know as well as point you to a plethora of resources available at your disposal.

Now, a little bit about me. I was born in Maracaibo, Venezuela in 1980 and I think that makes me a border line millennial with some behaviors from Generation X. I was raised by frugal parents who taught me the value of hard work and saving for the future. I graduated in 2004 with a Mechanical Engineering degree and soon started working in the Oil & Gas Industry back home. I had always thought about exploring the world but It wasn’t until 2007 when I realized I needed a change. Initially, I started to look for jobs all over the world; however, the competition was fierce and opportunities where pretty much non existent. As a result, I took a step back and decided that the best course of action was to go back to school. This ultimately led to the decision of coming to the US to pursue graduate studies.

I graduated with a Masters in Petroleum Engineering at the end of 2008 with absolutely “0” debt thanks to a scholarship I was granted from day one. I feel blessed with the opportunity I was given as I realize a lot of folks leave school with a ton of debt. Once graduated things could not have started better; I landed a job with a great company which paid really good money. Initially they sent me to Wyoming and I guess It was the perfect spot for that time in my life. Small town, not a lot of temptations, free sight seeing, super low cost of living……..which all equated to saving like a bad ass for two years.

Right before leaving Wyoming, I married my wife who is also from Venezuela. She didn’t get to spend too much time in the area as we were later transferred to Colorado. As a couple, we were on the same page in terms of our priorities. Faith was and is still number one followed by family and work. At this point in our lives we were big savers and watched our spending habits like crazy; however, we knew nothing about financial independence.

Work took us to Texas in 2012 and it was there where we were blessed with the arrival of our little guy. As you may imagine this changed our lives completely. We continued to enjoy things in life, saving, watching our budget and keeping things simple. It was in 2015 that work took us back to Colorado. I was working in the field and had a long commute. Initially, I complained a lot about it but I had no idea the big impact this would have in my life.

Instead of listening to music, I started listening to podcasts and it was one in particular called “listen money matters” that turned my life around. I started listening to other podcasts, reading blogs and essentially discovering a community I had no idea existed. The more I learned the more I wanted to keep going. Fast forward to 2017 and I now follow more blogs than I can count, listen to a variety of podcasts, have read several books on various topics and as a result have completely adjusted the way we spend, save and more importantly …. invest!.

I truly believe my journey to FI started with the lessons my parents taught me when I was a kid. I can still remember my dad saying .. “son, when things are going great that is when you should be saving the most because you don’t know when things are going to go bad“.  In the context of FI, I can say this has been one of the most important lessons in my life so thanks Dad!. The journey continues but now I plan to bring others on my quest for achieving Financial Independence.

Welcome!

JJ