Growing up in South America, my family didn’t talk much about money.

We didn’t have much of it either, so that’s probably why. There wasn’t much to talk about other than “We just have to make it through today. Tomorrow will be another story.”

One of the biggest financial lessons my mother instilled in me was this: “Alex, in life, you need to be responsible.”

To no fault of my family, my early adult years were financially challenging. By the time I was 18, I was juggling up to four jobs just to pay for school and make ends meet. Between minimum wage jobs, and other side hustles, I worked as a cashier, selling cutlery, cleaned bathrooms at my local grocery store, and worked late-night shifts at a gas station. I even managed to work my way up from part-time teller to supervisor at a bank. 

At 22, while attending school, I was fired from my gas station job. But I never gave up.

I refused to let my circumstances define my future and was determined to move my way up. 

Once I graduated college as an engineer at 22, with my eyes set on changing my trajectory and through my passion for self improvement, I took every opportunity to learn about personal finance, career, business, and mindset.

I read books, listened to podcasts, and watched thousands of hours of content, consuming any information that could help me improve my finances and build a secure financial future. I soaked up knowledge wherever I could find it.

My hard work paid off when, at 25, I broke into a six-figure income bracket. It was a moment of triumph, but my financial journey was far from over.

As a young man in my mid 20s, I got into a lot of debt. All the nights out at bars, trips to Europe, and music festivals led me to over consumption and a period of life where I lived above my means, financing cars I could barely afford, trying to keep up with friends, and living life like there was no tomorrow. 

A few years later, I got married and like many professionals nowadays, my new wife and I found ourselves buried just about $215,000 of debt (most of it, $150K,  student loans). Here’s a spreadsheet with our expenses once we had already paid off $25K:

At this time, this financial challenge was the biggest and hardest mountain my wife and I had to climb. This debt was holding us back from growing our family, moving to a bigger place, and building the financial security and stability we needed.

Knowing that money issues are one of the leading causes of divorce in the USA, we knew we needed to get our finances in order as soon as possible before expanding our family and taking on more responsibilities.

The stress and anxiety were overwhelming, but we decided to tackle our debt head-on, together.

We created a strict budget, worked on increasing our income through over-time and side hustles, cut unnecessary expenses, we reduced traveling extensively, and made lots of other sacrifices. We tracked our expenses down to the pennies, paid our monthly bills, and literally everything else went to debt.

Through extreme focus, disciplined and strategic planning, we managed to pay off our debt in almost three years.  Here’s our final spreadsheet after paying eveyrthing off. 

The painful experience was transformative, and it taught us invaluable lessons about marriage, money management, and financial planning.

Along this process, we became very familiar with personal finance strategies and techniques not just to get out of debt, but also to save and plan for the future as a family. Our challenge brought us closer.

Today, we’re not just debt-free; we’re actively planning for a secure future.

We’ve built a thriving online business, multiple streams of income, a robust savings plan and emergency fund, are investing wisely in our retirements, and secured comprehensive insurance to protect our family. Every step of our journey has been guided by the principles I now share with my clients.

My approach is grounded in real-life experience, extensive research, and a deep understanding of the challenges working professional parents face.

I’m not a financial advisor. I’m a working professional balancing career, family, and business, like you, and who is a few steps ahead, ready to guide you through your own financial journey. I aim to help you overcome the information overwhelm and get actionable steps to build a secure and stable future for you and your family.

If I can do this, so can you!