About
A little more about me…
Hi, I’m Nick, and welcome to my blog.
Before we get too far into this… yes, my given name is Nicholas.
But usually when someone calls me that my ears perk up because I’m usually in trouble (thanks Mom).
Anyways… back to it.
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I started this blog as a quick way to share what I’ve learned about personal finance with my college friends. We found that as we neared graduation, there were so many things that we were never taught in school…
…that really we should have been.
They weren’t too complex of subjects either. Topics like How to Build a Basic Budget or How to Find the Best Roth 401(k) Provider seem so trivial now, but at the time it was so daunting.
The easiest way I found to kickstart how to learn anything is to talk about it with your friends.
Once I started to openly talk to my friends about these sorts of topics, it accelerated our ability to learn because it didn’t feel like we were in it alone.
One of the first things I looked to tackle was my student loan debt. It totaled $25,000+ but I was super fortunate to drill it down quickly to around $18,000+ after a summer internship.
That’s the point when I really considered my personal finance journey to begin.
And I noticed across my friends that is also where they started theirs – car loan payments, credit card debts, college loan debts, or sometimes a mixture of them all!
Here are my thoughts on why we were each able to get a hold of their finances:
- We found resources or mentors that we could check in with and have transparent discussions with
- Instead of ignoring our finances, we made a schedule to review the state of our money
- We just got started, even if it was with a small step – the key was the start getting momentum
Learning about personal finances isn’t hard, but don’t get me wrong – it isn’t easy either.
So here’s my story – hopefully, it gives you an idea of my journey and the things that I’ve learned so far…
1992 – The Non-Existentent Son For a Day
I was born on April 1, 1992, to a loving Chinese and Puerto Rican couple.
Yes…April Fool’s Day.
A day that I am reminded of (or need to confirm) upon anyone new hearing of my birthdate.
There was a story that I remember being told by my father on the day of my birth, he had called his family with the excitement of his first son, “I’ve had a son!”
The response from his sister was nothing more than, “Haha, April Fools. I’m sure you did.”
So in a way, I didn’t exist for a day.
My father had to call his family on April 2nd to remind them – and really make sure they knew – that I was born the day prior.
My family was living at the time in a town named Palmdale, CA. It was still located in Los Angeles County, but WAY North of the actual city of Los Angeles.
Being a Southern California resident didn’t last very long as my family made the move to the San Francisco Bay Area by the time I was three.
Shoutout to the 5-1-0!
The one thing that I remember the most growing up was opening a giant box set of cassettes and workbooks by Hooked on Phonics. I swear that those were the only things that consumed my free time for at least the next couple of years.
If it wasn’t for Backyard Baseball (Go Pablo!) and Carmen Sandiego games coming into my life during elementary school, I would have only had a Purple Gameboy Color with a Pokemon Red Version to hold onto.
As the hopeful first-generation college graduate on my father’s side of the family…
…a lot of my childhood consisted of ‘getting good grades’ and anything else on the checklist of top things to do to get into a good college.
2006 – Bouncing Between Friend Groups as an Athletic Nerd
Fast forward to the awkward middle school times…
…and off to good ol’ high school.
The two rival middle schools, the Creekside Wildcats, and the Canyon Condors were now together in one high school.
We were all Castro Valley Trojans now.
I was coming from the smaller of the two middle schools, so there were so many new people in my classes that I had never seen before…
…but they seemed to already know one another.
I figured the easiest way to make new friends was by being involved.
And I tried a ton of things.
From the wrestling team to football to the random stint in the knitting club, basically anything I could try – I would try.
One of the checkmarks for college was participating in an organization called DECA.
Basically was a high school business fraternity.
We would compete against students across The High School Division which included over 160,000 members in 3,200 schools.
Great…I placed Top 16 in my category. *insert sarcastic enthusiasm*
But one of the best memories was when I was in my IT Networking class.
Armed with the ability to do anything we wanted on the public computer network,
Of course, we booted Starcraft: Brood War and Halo from flash drives and played video games all of the class.
Senior Year: I’m not going to college
After reading about how Bill Gates didn’t complete college, I was going to follow in his footsteps and skip college so that I too could be a massive success.
I mean c’mon…who actually wants to recycle and tailor a ton of personal statements for all the colleges our parents wanted us to go to?
I was so close to skipping all of the application dates until my parents said,
“Just apply to a few of the California State University (CSU) campuses, you don’t have to go but you’ll have the option if you get in.”
It was easy. One application and then checkbox the college you wanted it to go to. Simple.
Well, I got into a few of them, and the next thing I remember I was in the car driving to college.
…damn, they got me.
2010 – The College Chronicles (and A lot of Top Ramen)
So I ended up at San Jose State University (SJSU).
Located no more than an hour away from where I grew up (excluding any Bay Area traffic), it was located in the heart of Silicon Valley.
That was great except for the fact that I was broke living off whatever Pell Grants and Financial Aid that I qualified for…
…which of course didn’t cover nearly enough.
Oh! But don’t forget the few hours I worked at Oakley, so that’s another $90 per month.*
*At the time, the minimum wage was $8.50/hour
My routine consisted of going to class Monday – Thursday, and Friday and going to the dining commons with to-go containers to stock up for the weekend.
I didn’t have a meal plan on the weekends.
So if I forgot to pack food, it was going to be a hungry next couple of days if I didn’t want to eat any of my Costco-sized Top Ramen packets.
Regardless of the day, I remember refreshing my Bank of America mobile app to make sure I had a grasp on my account balance.
It rarely ever changed. But paranoia does that to you.
Always floating no more than $200.
The strategy was simple: spend less than I had.
2014 – A Degree In Hand with Little Direction
This was the day that my parents have been waiting for, they are now proud parents of a son with a college degree…
…and over $18,000 of student loan debt.
But at least I got a job, right?
Don’t get me wrong, it’s not nearly as large of a number as someone who went to a private college or ended up pursuing a secondary degree.
But it still sucks.
Ready with a $60,000 per year job, it was time to figure out the best way to get rid of this debt.
The first thing that I had to do was get familiar with my finances.
How much money do I make after taxes per paycheck?
How much are my monthly expenses?
Do I have any money to spend for fun?
I had to make a budget and it was totally different than the budget I made while still in college.
There were so many new things to consider.
This was the first time that I had to sit down and really look at all of my bank accounts, credit cards, debts, and a paycheck in detail.
It was so confusing!
It was a lot of searching for “how to make a budget” in Google and piecing together what worked best for me, and with terms that I actually understood.
Eventually, I was able to put together the first budgeting template that I could use consistently…
…and still, use to this day!
Sitting down and mapping everything out made it so much easier to really understand what was really going on.
And sometimes, still had to eat Top Ramen.
But looking back it was all worth it because…
… I was free from my student debt in just 13 months!
2016 – The snowball effect is real…and comes with travel.
The past couple of years of spending as little as possible and getting rid of my debt worked, but it definitely didn’t come with the same experiences I was seeing my friends have on Instagram.
Instagram was filled with what felt like everyone taking a gap year to travel the world,
And if it wasn’t traveling the world – included spontaneous trips to San Diego or New York City for the weekend.
All of this on Instagram while I was really soaking in the greatness of…
…San Jose?
This is when I really started to dig into the world of personal finance.
All the great things that are beyond a simple monthly budget, and learning how to make my money work for me.
One of the first things that I changed my perspective on was credit cards.
They were there to help serve me, and banks should pay me to use credit cards – not the other way around.
That simple concept unlocked the world of “credit card point hacking” and finding out ways to responsibly use a credit card while unlocking the world for me.
And I really do mean the World.
With the right mixture of responsibility never carrying a balance with my credit cards and learning how the credit score formula really works,
I was able to travel the world basically for free.
The first trip that I went on was to Thailand and Vietnam with Business Class seats.
I was hooked and I was going to really double down on building the machine of personal finance.
2020 – Quitting my job, a global pandemic, and… meditation?
Over the next couple of years, I was able to build off making my first budget to now building a system that has helped me:
- Travel to 16+ countries from the beaches of Bali to the summit of Mt. Kilimanjaro
- Witness how an investment portfolio doubled from $75,000 to $150,000 in a couple of years through a 401(k), Roth IRAs, and the stock market
- Utilize the holy grail of tax-benefit (and avoiding) Health Savings Account (HSA)
- Lay the foundation for my nephews’ futures through 529 College Saving Plans
- Learn how to get started within cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin and Ethereum
It was almost completely automated.
To not become complacent, I reserve the first of every month as my dedicated day to recalibrate.
Most of the time this doesn’t take more than an hour – or about the same amount of time as one episode on Netflix.
This automated process and investment of time really proved valuable when the events of 2020 swept the world…
…and I decided to quit my job to reassess really what I was spending my time on.
I didn’t have another job lined up.
I barely even had a ‘plan’ for what I was going to do next.
Some even asked if I was a trust-fund baby…
…but that couldn’t have been any further from the facts.
I was just responsible over the past years where I could really stand on my own two feet and work on things that I was actually passionate about.
The largest mental shift during this time for me was after reading The Miracle Morning.
It provided me the framework to work every day with prioritization of myself first – before anything else that might come throughout the day.
And from that, was the introduction of meditation into my life…
…and finding out what mediation app was the best for me.
If you know me well, you know that I’m a huge advocate of the grounding and mental clarity that meditation can provide.
This blog, for example, had been an idea for such a long time, but sitting down and learning how to make a blog didn’t become a reality until this point.
Where I am today…
Free.
Free to work on projects that excite me with the time allocation that I want to dedicate to them.
This includes working on some pretty cool startups.
From trying to start my own to joining other early stage startups,
I hope all of my experiences can help you go from zero to one…
I feel like it’s the most impactful way that I can give back to those that have helped me get to where I am today.
You can do it too!
If you are feeling like I did when I first started my personal finances journey…
…confused, overwhelmed, a desire for something more…
…you can do it.
Your why could be simply because you want to become debt-free,
Or something that you’ll be able to do once becoming debt-free like traveling.
It all starts with taking that first step.
In my case, it was making my first budget.
The ability to see everything on one page and really understand how much I am really spending eating out using DoorDash and Uber Eats to realize the true cost of my car (payments + insurance + maintenance) every month was a huge eye-opener.
After conquering that small step, each step was easier and easier.
You got this!
A Short Thanks – To You
If you’ve made it this far…
…thank YOU.
Thank you for spending some time reading through the journey that I’ve been on so far.
This was actually pretty fun to sit down and write out because I’ve never really reflected upon the various events that have gotten me to where I am at today.
If you end up navigating to some of the other pages throughout my blog, I hope that some of the stories that I share you find helpful to wherever you are in your journey.
If there is one thing that I have learned through this process, we aren’t in this alone.
If you can’t think of someone to reach out to, then I can be the first to join you on your journey.
Looking forward to continuing to share this journey with you, wherever it might take us.
All the best,
Nicholas Ayala
Learn the tactics we should have learned in school without the trail-and-error.
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