Our purpose with this blog

Mixing the logic of personal finance with the magic of Disney

The purpose of this blog is to help regular people navigate the same path to financial independence I’ve chosen and thus have the most experience.  The original purpose of these posts was to be a collection of acquired wisdom to share with my son when he is old enough but if the path is good enough for him to follow, I figured I should make it available to others. Additionally, I’ll share some math based breakdowns of my life and Disney.  I want to mathify life and help everyone see the beauty in knowing the numbers that surround their life.

The audience we hope will read this blog and get the most out of it will consist mainly of three groups (or so we currently assume… who knows who will find our work in the end). First, personal finance readers who like Disney or the Slow FI lifestyle. Second, Disney enthusiasts who want to read finance-based discussions on their favorite vacation place.  Third, regular people who just want to know where to put their hard-earned money without needing a finance or accounting degree, something easy to follow and not too involved but still offers a solid probability of success.  Are these groups of people who will find and read our work?  I hope so, but welcome anyone who finds our work useful or at least interesting enough to read.

What to expect from this blog

Next, let’s level-set some expectations for this blog. Will the articles and information on this blog be for everyone? Probably not.  Am I ok with that? Of course.  In the personal finance world of blogging (and the Disney blogging for that matter), we all gravitate toward creators who we like and provide us personally the most value while shying away from those who do not.  It doesn’t mean that the creator isn’t worthwhile. It probably just suggests that their point of view, style, or subject isn’t for you.  There is room in this world for everyone to create from their perspective and find others who appreciate that view.

Who is this blog for?

Who is this blog for? I honestly believe it could be useful for just about anyone interested in personal finance.  This blog is for anyone who wants to become financially independent, is tired of constantly worrying about their finances, and feels lost on what they should be doing with their money.  This blog isn’t solely for high-income earners or people with very low expenses since it can be applied even at median range salaries. 

I’m writing this for both myself and my son (to use when he is older) to have a flow chart of where to put our money to work in the most efficient manner without a sales pitch, luck, or advanced financial acumen involved. Through a lot of research, education, and first-hand experience I believe I found a solid path to financial independence and sincerely desire to help others along the way. If, like me, you are just a normal middle-class person who wants to retire someday and would prefer to defer to someone else’s recipe (not mine, but experts before me) for financial independence this might be the place for you.

Don’t reinvent the wheel here

Nobody should feel the need to build their own system or reinvent the wheel when many already exist and offer a relatively proven rate of success. As a former manager of mine once explained “I prefer the motivated but lazy people on my team. They work the hardest to make their job the easiest, most efficient work possible”.  I feel like personal finance is the same way in that it doesn’t need to be difficult or time-consuming if it is set up in an efficient manner.

Perhaps you aren’t interested in personal finance at all, which isn’t a bad thing, but still, need to handle your finances so you can retire one day and live the life of your choosing.  You should be able to work your way down the personal finance money flow chart and set your finances on auto-pilot and get back to working on things you are more passionate about pursuing.  Lastly, perhaps you just want some biased hot takes on personal expense choices, Disney, and where to put your money.

This isn’t for everyone

Who is this blog not for? First, day traders, speculative stock buyers, buyers of individual company stock are probably not going to get a lot out of my blog since my personal investment policy is to stick to broad-based index funds and not individual stocks. 

Second, those that want to invest heavily in the real estate or rental market won’t find much advice in that arena from me. It is great and a lot of people use it with success, just not for me so I’ll defer those options to the experts out there who are far more knowledgeable and passionate about real estate than I will ever be. 

Third, people living internationally and want financial advice specific to that situation since my musings will be centered around the United States specific personal finance.

This isn’t a get rich quick scenario

Fourth, people looking for a method to get rich quickly since the path I’ve chosen is a get-rich-slowly deal.  I’d prefer that too but chose something a bit more intentional and higher probability.

Fifth, people in significant amounts of personal debt (at least for right now) since my personal finance choose your own adventure series don’t deep-dive into debt management beyond the two most popular methods to tackle the repayment sequence. 

Again, I’ll defer on that subject to the field full of experts who have more thorough advice for getting out of debt. Lastly, people at or near the poverty line.  It’s not that I don’t care for their situation or believe they cannot rise above to succeed, it is mostly that the situation is very nuanced and specialized therefore not something I have the experience or expertise enough to take on with this blog.

Thanks for reading our blog

I believe that anyone who visits this site can find something of value to take away, regardless of their current financial situation.  If this blog only ends up being a place to store my financial advice for my son and one other person then I will feel like it was a success and worth it. The purpose of this blog is personal to every reader.