Embarking on My Personal Finance Journey: how everything started

It’s taken me quite some time to muster up the courage to put my thoughts into words and start blogging about my journey in personal finance.

I do not hold any degrees in economics or finance. I have a background in environmental engineering, a field quite distant from finance. However, over the past year and a half, I read a lot on this topic: blogs, books, new papers, etc. (I will soon make a list of my favorite ones).

This blog series is essentially a summary of what I’ve gleaned from my financial exploration.

I’ll write it for fun, to share my contents and hopefully to connect with interesting people. Now, let me take you back to where it all began, about a year and a half ago. A series of events triggered my fascination with personal finance:

1. My Mom’s Financial Troubles

One day, my mom found herself in a financial bind due to her variable-rate mortgage. As interest rates climbed, so did her mortgage costs. I step in to help her navigate this crisis, only to realize that I had absolutely no clue about how interest rates and mortgages truly worked. What’s more, as I sought assistance from friends and other family member, I realized that no one knew much about these financial intricacies.

2. Accumulating Savings Abroad

My decision to move abroad allowed me to start saving some money, but it also raised the question of what to do with it. Contrary to popular belief, I learned that buying a house isn’t always the smartest investment move. This realization led me to explore alternative investment solutions.

3. The Enlightening Neighbor

I became friend my new neighbor, who happened to work for a major European financial institution. Through our friendship, I began to grasp how skilled individuals manage their finances to build lasting wealth. It was a paradigm shift in how I viewed wealth accumulation.

Final remarks and next topics

These experiences marked the beginning of my personal finance journey, and they’ve fueled my passion to share what I’ve learned. I’ll be delving deeper into each of these topics and many more in my upcoming posts, with a goal of one post per week.

I sincerely hope you enjoy reading my blog and that it sparks your curiosity to learn more about personal finance.

Stay tuned for the next post!