About
Everything I wish someone had told me about money at 22.
I'm Johnny, the first in my family to graduate from college and the first to earn a master's. Today I'm a nonprofit chief financial officer with an MBA. I also launched my own concierge medicine management company. At home, I'm a family guy and a girl dad.
Nobody at home could explain a 401(k) match, a credit score, or how a raise gets decided. So I went and found out. I read everything I could, asked people who knew more than I did, and pieced it together from mentors, coworkers, books, and every finance channel I could find.
It worked, but it took years. This site puts all of that in one place, so you don't have to hunt for it the way I did.
I've helped support my family. When I write about sending money home, it isn't hypothetical.
Why I started this site
These days, family and friends often come to me with money questions. Along the way, I realized how much I enjoy helping them figure it out, and that stuck with me. This site lets me help far more people than the ones who can call me.
I also work with a lot of doctors, some of the most educated people I know, and money decisions scare many of them. It isn't about how smart you are. Nobody teaches this in school, whether you went to medical school or never went to college.
Work taught me what home couldn't: how a paycheck is built, how benefits work, and how raises get decided by the people who approve them. This site is the guide I didn't have, for first-generation professionals and anyone who never had someone to ask, in plain language and in the order it's useful.
What I want for you
Money decisions are intimidating. I'm here to help you feel confident making the ones that shape your life, with less stress and a real path to financial freedom. I want to see everyone succeed.
If more of us had known to start investing early, in low-cost index funds such as an S&P 500 index fund, and to collect every dollar of the 401(k) match, more of us would reach financial freedom, and sooner. Money invested early has more years to grow, and its growth grows too, so starting early can matter more than starting big. That's what I'd tell my 22-year-old self, and it's what this site is here to tell you.
What I am and what I'm not
- I am a working finance executive who has spent years learning this from books, mentors, and the people who make these decisions.
- I am not a licensed financial advisor, CPA, or attorney. Nothing here is personalized advice. When your situation is specific, pay a fee-only professional for an hour.
If I ever recommend a specific account or tool, I'll say plainly whether I'm paid for it.
My background and how I check each guide are on the author page and in the editorial policy.
Start where I wish I'd started
The free email course is the ten steps I'd hand my younger self, one a day, a few minutes each.