Hey there! I’m Tyler!

First of all, who the heck am I? I am not a financial guru or any kind of financial planner. I’m a dad of a teenage daughter, a husband to a wonderful wife, and someone who has been in the trenches of single-income family finances for a long time. My family and I have worked really hard and have managed to pull ourselves up to where we have money left over every month and are no longer living paycheck to paycheck. We are still on our journey but it’s generally smoother sailing now.

I was a 911 dispatcher for 21 years (19 of those on evening or night shift) so I never exactly raked in the dough. Overtime helped but we all know that taxes ate up a lot of that. During that time, I went through a rough divorce taking a loss on my house and a lot of bad debt. I felt like I was drowning and there was no help to be found.

I’ve always been a numbers guy so I was determined to fix it. I tried several different budgets and started reading as much finance information as I could. The more I searched, the more I realized that I was pretty much on my own. I could take bits and pieces of advice and patch them together, but there was no one out there helping people in my situation.

Things were finally starting to move in the right direction when I met my current wife. After a lot of calculations and deliberations, we decided that it would be best for all of us if she quit her job to be a stay at home mom. We worked together and made some small sacrifices up front and began to get our heads above water. Now, the only debt we have is our mortgage (which I’m determined to pay off as soon as possible) and we’re able to put money into savings and investments.

A New Beginning

After leaving my 2 decades long career in public safety, I still have the desire to help people. I still work a fulltime job in another industry but this blog is my way of giving back and still helping as many people as I can. When I was trying to get my family to a better place, the only resources I could find were rich people telling me to “skip my coffee and I too, could be a millionaire” and “just ask for a raise.” It seemed that there was no one that could relate to our situation as a single income family on a public safety income. As a financial coach, I want to be that resource for you! Finances can feel complicated and overwhelming, but I truly believe that they don’t have to be.

Whether you are a single or dual income family, in public safety, customer service or whatever, man or woman; I’m here to help. I’m going to share tips, tricks, advice and even some of the battle scars that we’ve earned to help you get out of a place of financial dread.

Live your life

I don’t believe that everything has to be sacrificed and you have to be miserable in order to be financially fit. Do you want a coffee every day? Do you like having an expensive meal occasionally? Is clothes shopping what makes you happy? Maybe it’s travel? GO FOR IT! Just do it within reason and make sure that you have a budget for it. Together we can find ways to live your life and be happy while getting your bank account in check.

We have also started “travel hacking” and using credit card points to pay for trips. Keep an eye on the blog, as I plan on sharing that knowledge as I go as well! (These pictures are from the trip my wife and I took to Boston last fall. Round trip flights and 7 nights in a nice hotel cost $22 and some change! We have an upcoming trip planned to NYC for the three of us that also has cost less than $35 for flights and hotel) If you are interested sooner, shoot me a message on social media or an email!