Imagine the year is 1777. You’re living in a tent in Valley Forge, Pennsylvania. In the mornings, you wake up to fresh drifts of snow on the ground that you are forced to trek through in your hole-ridden boots. Your only coat is not enough to stop the cold from consuming you, but everyone around you is staying put, so you decide you will do the same. Twenty miles away, the city of Philadelphia, where independence was declared only a year and a half ago, now belongs to your enemy. You begin to feel alone and desperate, wondering when you will finally find the freedom you were once promised.
This is not a history blog. Although I’m by no means an expert in it, I always find myself drawn to history for many reasons. Humans do change, but they also stay the same in many ways. If you look closely, you will find people like yourself in nearly any time period you choose to look at. The story of the American Revolution almost reads like a founding mythology to me. I am fascinated especially by the now-famous words of the Declaration of Independence:
“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”
No matter what contradictions were present when Thomas Jefferson, a slaveowner, wrote those words, they have served a tremendous purpose in forming the dreams of a great multitude throughout history. That promise of freedom seeps deep into the human heart. In many ways, we don’t feel free because we aren’t truly free. We may not be treated the way the colonists were leading up to the Revolution, but there are other obstacles in our road to independence today.
The Rocks in the Road
The current world keeps us down in other ways. We live in a time when the cost of living continues to rise, and our wages do not keep up. A college education that could once be paid for through working a summer gig now often costs tens of thousands in student loans. A solid middle-class job that could once pay for a house, a car, and provide for a family of eight might pay for half of that lifestyle, if you live in the right zip code. Many of you know a reality far harsher than this. You have worked hard for years. You follow the rules. You pay your taxes and you pay your bills. When all is said and done, what’s left for you?
A massive pile of debt. A crushing load that keeps you working and working without any promise of true reward. You may have felt tempted to give up more than a dozen times by now because of how heavy the burden is. You may still feel tempted to. Wherever you look, it seems like there is no way out.
My goal here today is to tell you that there is, whether you’re able to believe it now or not. You do not have to keep living the way you’ve gotten used to. Life is full of change and things can always get better. Yes, even in the world of personal finance.
Who I am
Now, I told you at the beginning of this post that I am not an expert in history. I’m also not an expert in this field either. I have no degrees or professional background in the world of finance, accounting, economics, or any other money-related field. I’ve never even taken a single class on any of these subjects. I don’t say that to brag; I actually wish I had done things a bit differently. It would have saved me from a lot of the mistakes along the way. But ultimately, our mistakes are part of what makes us who we are today and I would never have felt the motivation to start this blog if I hadn’t felt the sting of my own mistakes in the past.
I also state this disclaimer about myself from the onset because you, the reader, deserve to know who you’re listening to. We live in a world where credentialing matters more than anything else in terms of whether or not you can call yourself an “expert.” If that’s what matters most to you, you’ll have to keep looking. I will not claim to be someone that I am not.
But if anything that I’ve said up to this point resonated with you in any way, I encourage you to read on. I may not have the degrees or titles that so many financial gurus out there today carry, but I do have the passion and the dream to help you all make yourselves whole again. I believe this world has broken us in so many ways that we don’t even fully understand. I believe those burdens hang around our necks like heavy weights and bleed into other areas of our lives without us realizing.
But I do believe it doesn’t have to be this way and, more than anything else, I want you to believe the same for yourself.
No matter where you are today or what mistakes you’ve made before, choose to believe that things can and will get better for you and the ones you care about. I’m not advocating some silly pie-in-the-sky nonsense about how the power of belief alone will set things right. No, not in the least. Real change requires real action, and I will offer a lot in terms of help in the following posts if you decide you do want to make the right changes in your life. But we have to make that decision in our mind first before we can take the first step with true commitment.
The road to independence is never easy. For you, it might even be harder than it is for those around you. Don’t allow that thinking to paralyze you. The men who suffered defeat after defeat in the early years of the American Revolution saw many more years of hunger, cold, and bloodshed before they finally saw the day of victory. Your road to independence will be long as well. How long, no one can know for certain. But if others before you have found independence, you can do the same in your own life, in your own time.
I hope you’re feeling motivated for the journey ahead. I cannot wait to stick beside you as you continue on from here.
Peace, everyone!