Disclaimer

First things first. I am not a professional. I repeat: not a professional. Aside from perhaps a few finance classes and a nerdy addiction to excel, I have no more classical training than you, the guy sitting next to you, or your pet. The tradeoff to that? I have nothing to sell. No financial gain. No incentive to what I post here. And since professionals often do have something to sell, well - how bad can free advice be?

So if I'm not a professional, who am I? I am ten years senior to my youngest sister, an amazing, bright, energetic (and dare I say spoiled) twenty-two year old graduating from college and taking her first steps into the real world. A few weeks ago, she got her first job offer. In distress, she called me. She wasn't sure what she was being offered would be enough. So I whipped up a fancy little excel spreadsheet, walked her through some budgeting options, and in the end, she had a much better understanding of whether or not it would be enough (and some of the tradeoffs she'd have to make to make it work).

Fast forward a few weeks, and she's sent it to her friends. "They love it," she says. And so starts the inspiration for this blog. A place to post tools to help those (my sister, her friends, and their friends) just starting out with financial management and decisions.


So, here's the plan. While, yes, I'll post things every once in a while based on chats with my little sister, I'm open to trying to answer your questions, too. Just shoot me an email at what.the.heck.is.fica@gmail.com.