Rich outside, paycheck-to-paycheck in reality

From a very young age, I knew that money was necessary. When I was making wishes as a kid, I wished for money (or a magic wand which is the same in this age). I was also lucky to be born into a family of professional engineers who believe that a good education and hard work will pay you.

My initial view of money was: get much of it, and everything will fall into place. So, I followed the classical career path: working hard during my studies, working hard after I graduated, sacrificing a lot, and finally starting to get results. My first real job was in the 60th percentile of the market (not a bad start!), and then I basically doubled my income every three years, which brought me to the infamous 1% of the population in a reasonable amount of time.

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I’m bad with my money

I am bad at personal finances.

It was two years ago in February, I was finalizing my divorce and trying to rebuild my life with my kid. Brick by brick, I was constructing new existence: find a new rental apartment, figure out school questions, buy furniture, focus on my career (how many times the diving into my career saved me!). Still, it was a time of uncertainty, and my sanity depended on how much order I was able to bring to my life.

With time things started to fall together: my new apartment started to look like a livable place, my kid got used to a new school routine and met new friends, my investment in work brought higher title and respective routine. And then it came: one day I woke up with a sick feeling, that I am bad at personal finances.

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My long way to investing

Finally, I’m an official investor: having a brokerage account, choose stocks, bonds, and mutual funds for the purchase, tracking market situation, making investment decisions…

It took me more than 20 years to come to the point. The 20 years passed from the time when I first read about investment and wanted to do it to the time when I actually started to invest. Now, looking back I’m sure I could start much earlier…

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