ABOUT THE SITE

Before launching EngineerYourFinances, a fair amount of time was spent debating whether or not I had something unique to offer. There’s so much personal finance advice out there already, how would I differentiate myself?

Truth be told, I couldn’t pinpoint a particular skill worth sharing.  However, there was a silver lining.

During the numerous attempts to narrow a site concept, three themes kept arising: optimization, education, and financial security.  As I feel these fundamental qualities are lost in a world of get-rich-quick schemes and as they are the basis for my own beliefs, so the idea for EngineerYourFinances was realized.

Optimization

Maximize the good, minimize the bad. That’s the quick and dirty definition. The funny thing with optimization, there’s usually room for improvement. Think of the degrees of comparison in the English language. Even if things are good or easy, they could always be better or easier.

But more is not always better, and optimization requires fine tuning a delicate balance. Eventually you reach the other side of the curve, realize the grass isn’t greener and start to experience diminishing returns.

Personal finance can be approached much in the same way as an engineered system. Think of all the things we try to do with our money: minimize loan rates, maximize interest rates, minimize fund costs, maximize fund returns, and on and on. We all share a common goal – optimization.

Education

Ask any professional engineer if they consider themselves an expert. Most likely, they’ll give some indirect explanation of how they’ve studied the topic for the past _____ years, but wouldn’t go so far as to call themselves “experts”… even if they’ve testified as an expert witness! This stems from the understanding that information is ever-changing and limitless.

No matter what undertakings you pursue in life, the general rule of thumb is that any success can be attributed to education. Education can come in a variety of forms, with no one form representing the absolute nor any one form being particularly correct.

But education is only the byproduct of our goals. This is really what drives us to educate ourselves. Whether you have aspirations to become an Olympic athlete, school principal, or finance whiz, achieving those widely different goals all are aligned through the pursuit of knowledge via education.

Security

Before graduating, I attended a seminar providing a “welcome to the real world” for engineering students. What immediately struck me was the quote at the top of the handout:

“Money should not be your ultimate goal – financial security should”.

When you move past worrying about the day-to-day costs of living, or even those horrible rainy days, you’ve reached financial security. What comes next is what we’re all after – financial freedom, that ability to care-freely pursue and enjoy whatever it is that gives us pleasure in life.

However, security is commonly confused with wealth. Not achieving obscene amounts of wealth by the current standards does not preclude us from being financially secure, and therefore free.

It’s easy to get wrapped up in what we perceive as wealth and lose focus on our financial freedom. None of us are necessarily entitled to wealth, but we all deserve our own financial security.

ABOUT ME

Not the expected financial education, received an engineering degree instead. Hopefully coupling a systematic approach to problem solving with an interest in behavioral finance and a general disdain for proscribed cultural “norms” will provide readers with a fresh perspective.

The majority of my information comes from personal reading and research, but the framework for my fiscal policy was formed by family who, over the years, did a tremendous job. Of course, it wasn’t always appreciated while it was happening. Looking back now I realize how fortunate I was to be writing checks before I was 13, investing before 18, and never having to use the dreaded word debt.

Through this endeavor, I’ll be working to accomplish the same goals I’ve set out for the readers. Increase and expand upon my own financial education, work on improving and optimizing my own financial system, and continue the long trek towards that ultimate goal of financial security.

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