Why Margin?
Growing up, my parents taught me that if I wanted something, I had to work for it. There were no handouts, no trust funds, but a healthy dose of support and encouragement to pursue my dreams and aspirations. With an entrepreneurial spirit and drive for success, I sought out opportunities from a young age to master what is now referred to as arbitrage combined with what Warren Buffett calls value investing. Although typically applied to different asset classes, I love the process of finding something undervalued in one sense or market and locating a market that will support the value I see.
Once I began my college career, I worked through college building experience while managing multiple side-hustle ventures and ultimately earning my MBA in Finance. Once I graduated, I was ready to take all of that and step out into a new adventure. I landed a management-level Accounting & Finance position in another state and was prepared to put my education and experience to work.
Knowing the field I was stepping into, I did what most do: I funded what scholarships and grants would not cover with student loans. However, I was too preoccupied with everything else going on to be concerned about how long it would take or the additional income I needed to make to repay these student loans. Graduating college after the last financial crisis had officially ended, there were still significant areas of the economy that had yet to recover. The road to recovery was slow and bleak initially, but the recovery was evident, and I didn’t let the debt-load weigh me down.
Although I could see the evidence of that recovery, some areas seemed like uncharted territory for the economy. I watched the continued downward pressure on pay and a shifting upward pressure on organizations to do more with less, causing a lose-lose situation for employees. Not only were salaries less than expected and employer expectations higher, but there was also little job security. I also experienced a layoff during this time and realized that no one is immune to these disruptions. Although the dismissal itself taught me a great deal, it wasn’t what ultimately impacted me the most. It forced me into a place where I could realize [Margin], not just time in my schedule, but [Margin] to think and explore what I wanted out of life, and well, maybe even more importantly, what I didn’t want.
It was the first time in my life where obligations and deadlines of work and school didn’t exist, so I left. I left the worry, the stress, and the time constraints behind. I was free to explore. I was free to see the places I had been dreaming about. I moved to Incline Village, Nevada (North Lake Tahoe), and I took the opportunity to paddleboard the glass-smooth, pine-filled air of Lake Tahoe, floated the Truckee River, drove through the rolling hills and vineyards of Napa and Sonoma, woke up in the picturesque mountain resort town of Park City, and explored the vast Colorado Rockies. I hadn’t explored this much in years. It was then that I was able to recharge and gain a new perspective. Apart from the whirlwind I had known for all too long, I finally felt my soul breathe. I was able to identify the elusive piece that had been nonexistent in my life before: [Margin].
I realized that I wanted to work to build a life but not focus so much on making a living that I didn’t have a life. I didn’t want my work to be my life. I am all about hustling, but margin comes when you can slow down enough to be aware of your surroundings, be in tune with the needs around you, and be in a place to seize opportunities as they arise.
It is the space between what one is required to do and what one wants to do. It’s a surplus of time and resources, not just one or the other. It’s the ability to make room for things that truly matter to you. Unfortunately, the topic of margin is seemingly lost as more jump on the fast-paced, high-pressure, little-to-no-rest, hamster-wheel-world in which we operate.
This trap, my friend, has continued to be challenging to escape. This life looks good on the outside, and it looked great on me, but this picture of success caused me to be internally imbalanced and was unsustainable. Why is this trap so easy to chase? What was drawing me into what I thought that life provided?
When I was growing up, there was a family who supposedly “had it all.” If there was any family whose lifestyle I looked up to, it was this family. They had the sprawling estate where get-togethers always occurred. They were beyond generous with those around them. Their home always had the newest technology and highest quality furnishings. They also continuously bought brand new, high-end vehicles (being a car guy, this was probably what I longed for most, besides the garage they were housed in). During the last downturn, though, something happened. Their business failed, an immediate family member passed away, and the family broke apart. From the outside looking in, this family seemed to have lost everything: the relationships, the provision, the grandeur plans, and aspirations. That family lost the business, lost the house, the possessions, and ultimately split up and moved to various locations across the country. It was utterly heartbreaking—especially with a family that seemed like such a bedrock in our community.
Witnessing this devastation taught me that even though everything may look perfect on the outside, there can still be great rifts in the foundation. Although you cannot prevent sickness or death in the family, you can work to be as equipped as possible. I didn’t want to look like I had great relationships, look healthy, look wealthy, or even look generous; I wanted to actually be those things. Not superficially, but legitimately. I wanted to have actual margin.
Unfortunately, this was not the only example I saw, as I watched the lack of margin and related financial preparedness dangle the people I cared about over a pit of fear, struggle, and pain. My heart broke. This anguish prompted me to formulate a plan to build margin into my life and finances. I saw how important it was to become a role model, not ostensibly, but actually. I thought back to the freedom I experienced during that road trip and the financial agony I saw in the lives of those I loved. I knew there had to be another way. I knew I had to face it head-on if I was going to live the life I truly wanted and for those around me to be influenced to do the same.
I wish I could say that this realization was all that I needed to stay the course, but it has been more of a process than that. Although I had this realization, I also had genuine obligations to meet. I moved back to be closer to my girlfriend and community, then landed another rat race type of job before truly applying this realization.
Although the financial transformation was the process I was most focused on, I recognized that there were other areas of my life that needed to be addressed before this. Even though I had just moved back to be close to my significant other and my community, I decided to break up with my girlfriend of five years, which then caused a ripple effect in the friend groups we were a part of. I ultimately knew that the decision was in the best interest of both of us. We shared many of the same friends, so it was a challenging few years. The journey continued as I approached one-by-one each aspect of my life, from what I consumed to the people I spent most of my time with. I decided to take much more of an active vs. passive approach to my plan and that’s where I honed in on my financial future. I recalibrated my life and paid off 100% of my debt. I had everything from a home loan, home equity line of credit, a couple of credit cards, a line of credit, student loans, as well as a few auto loans… yes, “a few” would be accurate. (I’m a car guy, what can I say?) But why did I take this seemingly drastic approach?
I reflected first on how I needed to change: focusing not on what others needed to do to change themselves, but looking at myself in the mirror. I knew that the objective was to change my perspective and my habits in order to change my reality.
Margin came from what I witnessed in myself and so many others. I have seen too many people suffocating from the weight of debt. I have seen too many people putting in endless hours of work, telephones screaming in the background, staring blankly at a computer wondering if this is what their life will look like for the next twenty, thirty, forty years. And I’ve seen people who have achieved what they set out to accomplish in their career, but they can’t seem to shake the feeling that they are missing something or had already missed their window.
With my education and experience in corporate finance, I found that corporate finance can often be a byproduct of the perspective that decision-makers have regarding their personal finances. A corporate balance sheet is telling you how a CEO prioritizes shareholders, how comfortable he/she is with debt, and what types of assets that he/she involves the business in. Much like the balance sheet analogy, I knew that my personal finances, my perspective, and the approach to life did not only affect me. I had to radically transform my life to have the life I truly wanted and then inspire others to do the same. As I began to wipe out each debt one by one, those around me began to take note. Consequently, I started to help others strategically approach their personal finances, careers, dreams, and aspirations as well. I now meet regularly with people struggling to escape the lack of margin they have found themselves in, primarily due to the decisions they have unknowingly made to box themselves in. I have had the great honor of helping millennials make breakthroughs in their personal finances. It takes one to know one, and I’ve been there. But I wanted to do more. I knew the freedom margin brings, and I wanted others to experience this freedom as well. I have always enjoyed challenging others to gain perspective, financial stability, and ultimately margin in life—now it was time for me to put my money where my mouth was. I knew I needed to launch Millennial Margin.
