Welcome to the inaugural entry of my musings, designed to help you navigate some of life’s major events.

A bit about me: I retired after a successful career spanning over four decades, with experience in both the public (US Navy) and private sectors. My journey included contracting work with several companies and culminated as a Director and Program Manager for General Dynamics Information Technology, working with the Military Sealift Command. Throughout my career, I’ve encountered numerous mentors and witnessed the impact of both good and bad decisions on financial security and personal well-being.

I want to be upfront: I am not a financial professional, nor do I sell any products or services. This blog aims to offer casual yet actionable advice on not only how to mitigate risk (more on that later) but also how to live an authentic life, focusing on money as a means of security rather than an end in itself.

Growing up in a blue-collar town in northern Illinois, my understanding of money and finance has evolved as I became more engaged with personal and business finance. Initially, like many in the Midwest’s middle class, my views on money were straightforward: pay with cash, buy a house, pay your bills, and save for a rainy day if possible. Any extra money went into a savings account at the bank, earning a small but steady interest over time.

Much like the narrative in Rich Dad/Poor Dad, my early ideas about money were fundamentally different from today. I had to learn about stocks, bonds, and how our capitalist economy creates opportunities for wealth development. Unlike “riches,” which are about current consumption, wealth translates into security and the freedom to pursue one’s life goals. Unlike in that book, I didn’t really have an example of a “Rich Dad” – everyone around was in the relatively same demographic. While some may have had newer cars or vacationed more often, the place I called home was predominantly modest single-family, one-earner homes with one (or no) car and most had kids (it was the height of the baby-boom, after all).

Let me step back, for a moment, and make a few observations about life “in the good old days” versus today and what I think they tell us about advice that is simply based on “this is how I did it”. Much of the middle-class wealth in this country is based on a combination of real estate (predominantly in the form of the family home) and some combination of retirement accounts, including 401(k) and IRA/Roth IRA savings. Unfortunately, the path to home ownership has gotten much harder, as housing prices and availability accelerated well beyond inflation over the past 50 years. Moreover, the days when companies provided a fixed pension for employees in retirement have been replaced by systems that have often relied on the employee to make active choices that may not have been well-understood and that required deferring compensation they often feel they need now. Our perception of what constitutes a “necessity” has shifted and there are an unprecedented array of things and choices available to the consumer today as compared to even the 70’s.

All of this, coupled with the shift from single- to dual-income households as the norm have changed what it means to be comfortable and secure. There simply aren’t the same rules as applied to my parents with regard to what was needed to live comfortably. In future posts, I will talk about things related to all aspects of financial security – as well as things that are much more grounded in what each of us feels we need to live our best life.

Today, let me close with my thoughts about what is fundamental, regardless of goals, to secure our future:

1. Invest in yourself. This doesn’t necessarily mean college, or even a trade, but remain curious and informed about the world we live in and seek to become accomplished at those things that drive your passion and feed the joy of living. This may not always work out to mean an income sufficient to live the life you seek, but it will provide the best quality of life while you explore the means to make that a reality…
2. Live below your means. I know I didn’t feel like there was a lot left over from my paycheck in the early years – especially once I was married and had a kid on the way. Nonetheless (not that I did a great job, TBH), getting to a place where saving is a routine and practiced part of your life will pay dividends (pun fully intended – I AM a dad, after all) by not only growing a nest egg for emergencies and future plans, but because it helps us prioritize the meaningful parts of life over simply increasing the number and expense of the “things” we add to our life.
3. Understand and own the thought that WE are the product, and companies want what we can bring to their need. I looked at my early career – even for the first years in the Navy – as doing a job and getting paid. Nothing wrong with that mindset, in and of itself, but it doesn’t provide context for how we market and leverage the singe thing we have in our control: the ability to provide something of value to improve the bottom line of a company. As a hiring manager, one of the mistakes I saw in candidates for work was their focus on what they would get rather than what they offered. The best candidates understood they were providing a talent or skill that would fit the need and provide benefit to the company. Thinking this way keeps us focused on what we need to do and know and learn to be most effective and makes us both highly valuable and highly sought-after. While nothing can guarantee against job loss, having this mind-set will put you in a place to better adapt and become more “portable” in your employment opportunities…
   

That’s it for now but I will expand on these and many other topics in the coming weeks and months. Feel free to drop me a line or provide comments as well as ask questions or suggest topics for future posts.

Kevin