Hello world!
I thought I'd kick off the blog by telling you all a little about myself.
I found my love for money as a topic of study when I was a junior in college. I was looking for a new major (Physics is more fun as a hobby than a career, btw) and feeling pretty lost. I'd pinned a lot of my identity on my interest in physics and didn't really have a back up plan.
Fortunately, I was taking a financial literacy class the very semester that I loved. That class inspired me to look into finance as a career, and ultimately decided to major in finance as an undergrad.
My early studies and career were focused on corporate finance, but that was never where I wanted to spend my life. I wanted to work with people. Help people. Make a difference in their lives. Trouble was, I had no idea where to begin.
So I continued to study and learn and kept my eyes open for opportunities.
One such opportunity came the summer before my senior year of college. I found a job that let you be a "financial advisor" with no training or experience. I signed up, not super optimistic, but hoping to just get some valuable experience.
Experience I got, but not the kind I had expected.
The type of company I had wound up with was the kind that gives a smattering of training to people and then sends them out to sell life insurance. Even as a untrained youngster still in college, I knew that the training and mentality of this company was completely wrong. When I met with people, they didn't need an expensive life insurance policy. They needed a budget. They needed to learn to manage their spending habits. They needed to build an emergency fund. I had landed not in a financial advisory firm, but in a life insurance sales company.
Not. For. Me.
I didn't make a dime from this job. What I did get, though, was a burning desire to STOP the predatory and counter-productive practices of these type of companies. I wanted to help people recognize how to protect themselves and live their best lives.
I didn't have the faintest idea how to do this. Financial planning was a career back then. CFP board existed. But I didn't know it. I had no mentor, and knew no one who worked in financial services.
So I (foolishly, in hindsight) pressed on alone, determined to find a way to make a difference in the world.
It wasn't until a few years later that I decided to pursue academia as a career. I was working through my MBA program at the time. Many of my classmates were struggling with our finance class, so I was tutoring the entire group almost every week.
My peers commented regularly that I was the best teacher they'd ever had. That I had a gift for explaining complicated things in simple ways. They said that I should become a professor myself.
It was like a lightbulb turned on in my head.
In retrospect, I couldn't believe I had never considered academia as a career. It was a perfect fit. I could study endlessly, get paid to learn forever, and have the chance to teach others how to live their best life.
It was a perfect fit.
I got my Ph.D. at Texas Tech University (guns up!), completed a post-doctoral fellowship, and then started teaching and doing research full time at Western Carolina University.
I conducted research studying the effect of risk on financial satisfaction and how to anticipate emotional reactions to negative financial activities. View my publications here.
Eventually, though, I decided to turn my attention from research and focus 100% on teaching. So I took a teaching-focused position at the University of Arizona and launched Midas Financial Classroom (to offer full courses) and Vested Professor (to offer books, workshops, blog posts, etc).
My goal? To extend my reach o a broader audience than just those who have the chance to attend my university classes. EVERYONE needs to know how to manage money, not just those who choose college. I believe I have a unique way of approaching financial education that empowers people to understand the process of financial management.
And that brings us to today!
I hope this snippet of my professional journey gives you a sense of who I am, what I value, and why I work so hard to bring financial education to as many people as want it.
So if this sounds like something you're interested in, then welcome! Take a look around the website and blog, check out my Instagram account. I hope you have fun and learn something useful!
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