Over the arc of my life and career a shift started to happen where I realized that I was at the point where I could stop working for other people to get financial independence and start working for myself to achieve happiness. I couldn’t find a good manual for how to do this so I started doing a bunch of reading on my own and this site was born.
How To Use This Site
As I have written more, these writings have been grouped into the following categories to help those interested in particular area get answers as fast and as efficiently as possible:
I consider Life Outside The Maze to be a place to share the story in real time of how one guy applies himself in seeking a happy, adventurous, and fulfilling life after reaching financial independence and subsequently changing his decision making process. However, I also share some investing and financial information as well and there is a natural skepticism associated with money because often when someone talks about it, they want some of yours:
“There’s a brand new gimmick every day just to take somebody’s money away”
Bob Dylan, Nobel Prize Winner, Song and Dance Man, Possible Con Artist
Financial Independence Disclosure
I did not start this site to make money. My motivation is to be part of a community and to hopefully help others. I currently spend a few dollars and many hours per week on this blog but make exactly zero. This may change in the future if I start linking to things that I like in articles because why would I leave free affiliate money on the table when I am all about being financially savvy? For now, however, I make no money from this blog. If this changes, I will explicitly share that information right here.
Investing and Finance, Who Can You Trust?
I would like to share general lessons that I have learned about investing and finance. I believe that I can offer some value in this area and help others on their wealth building journey. However, I am not a financial professional and none of these general ideas should ever be considered specific financial advice. In fact, generally don’t trust anyone. The internet is full of advertisements and “calls to action” but light on facts and depth. Reader beware it is your responsibility to separate the gold flakes from the sand.
Making My Financial Independence
My father was a financial advisor and I started my Roth IRA in my teens. My wife and I both had college funds and were fortunate to come out of school without any debt. However, when we started our careers out of college we started from less than $1000 in our bank account. From that point we have saved enough solely from our own career earnings and the resulting investment returns to provide for our financial independence on our own accord. We have also additionally benefitted from gifted family money over time.
Does My Story & This Site Apply To You?
Hint the answer is yes keep reading to see why…
I was raised by financially savvy middle class parents and I went to college. My wife and I both pursued technology careers and we worked into management within those careers. Management roles within technology are high paying jobs.
I have encountered challenges and I have shared many of them on this blog. However, your challenges may look vastly different and your path to financial independence may look nothing like mine. However, this may be exactly why this site is worth reading. There is power in learning from those with other life experiences and those who have achieved results where you may aspire to. It is also important to disregard things that may not apply to your current life situation.
My lady and I have lived frugally to get where we are and I have shared some of these general ideas in an article about the virtues of frugality, and one sharing how I think about money called How to Save Over $100,000 without giving anything up.
We do not live as frugally now as we did in our heavy accumulating phase so please don’t try to emulate my spend or keep up with any of the internet Joneses. If you see me travelling Spain or living it up in Las Vegas, it is because I have financial momentum from living by the ideas on this site. I am at a spot in this financial journey where this is well within means and does not conflict with broader financial goals. After all, living far below your means and the freedom that this can bring over time is part of life outside the maze.
In addition to being frugal and saving aggressively, I have been learning about investing since as long as I can remember and have actively invested in loads of things. This has been instrumental to getting financial independence for me and I share much of this in the financial independence section on this site.
Building Happiness Disclosure
I am not a spiritual guru or a religious zealot. I claim no authority on happiness. However, I am a learner and try to apply logic and common sense. Like you I am on this journey. I share what has worked for me and I cite research where applicable.
Successful Habits Disclosure
Anyone who tries to define what it means to be successful is likely going to hit failure pretty quick. To each her own. Career wise I do consider myself a high achiever. I have led teams inside of tiny startups and 100 billion dollar companies as well. I have been an engineer, director, founder, and CEO. My entire career has been spent developing new products and businesses. Perhaps more importantly, I am a lifelong learner. Most of my thoughts on successful habits come from career experiences and learnings from my personal life.
Adventure and Travel Disclosure
I am a firm believer that growth comes from pushing beyond a comfort zone. I have experienced some awesome adventures and been to over 25 countries so far. My hope is to see a little more each day.
My Hidden Agenda
I love to apply myself, I am a curious learner, and I like to help people. My hope with this site is that I can do some of these. Selfishly, I am hopeful that writing will make me feel productive and give me a sense of achievement. I also hope to connect with like minded people and maybe even make some friends and share some experiences together. Thanks for stopping by. If interested, check out the 4 categories followed by the latest article here on the homepage or, if you can handle the deep dive, start from here and read them all start to finish (it has been done).
If you’d like to get a weekly email directly from me with a few thoughts and latest articles, consider subscribing below. It’s totally free and totally worth it, I promise.
Be well on the path.