I didn’t borrow millions of dollars against real estate, and then go bankrupt because the bank wanted all their money. I didn’t have a café full of rich people write me tens of thousands of dollars’ worth of personal checks to pursue my passion, and then give it to a financial advisor to squander away.

I messed up the old fashioned way. I had no personal finance education when I turned 18. So what did I do? I was making $10.00 an hour and was able to get approved for a $18,000 car and multiple credit cards. When I realized that I couldn’t cover all of my regular expenses (Rent, Utilities, Food, ETC.) plus my new debts, I tried to find a way to fix what I had done. Enter in the payday loan, I used the payday loans to pay the credit cards just to use the credit cards to pay my regular bills. It was a vicious cycle, and My wife and I let ourselves be stuck in this cycle for years until we finally had nothing left.

The stress, anxiety, wasted money, etc., this all could have been avoided. If our education system or our parents would have given us the proper financial knowledge, we most likely would not have gone through all of it. Having the proper financial knowledge and knowing how to implement it is all it takes to be financially successful. This is why I started Finances Explained, to give everyone access to easy to understand, unbiased, and non-authoritarian information and advice. I have helped hundreds of people pivot from their dire financial straits to more manageable financial situations.