Welcome

If you're taking the time to read this, thank you. If you are a member of my family, friends, colleagues, or confidants, thank you for your support. I never think of myself as someone to be listened to or really, for that matter, tuned in to my writings. That being said, I'm thankful you are here. First, I wanted to start this blog on a high note by mentioning I do not know very much about the very world, climate, and sectors I partake in. Good, a firm base of transparency! Secondly, I do not come from money. I never had proper introductions, apprenticeships, higher education, or the right jobs due to context. I am strong-willed, scrappy, and the guy who spills coffee on the customers and gets shouted at. I have learned a lot over the last 5 years as a player, and not as an observer, through hardship, trial and error, and crap tons of rejection. Let's get into it.

In November of 2007, my family had moved from our hometown of Anchorage, Alaska, to Boise, ID.  I grew up having everything I needed. A loving family, a home, and food on the table. Oh, and three younger sisters who at the time I thought were out to tattle on me constantly... Today, they're my best friends. Family, community, and friendships that we had loved and known for years felt like light years away from us. I was 10 at the time (almost 11) and remember the feeling of being in the lower 48 was odd. Besides our yearly vacations to Cancun every winter, I really hadn't spent much time in the lower portion of the country. I remember unpacking the U-Haul truck, and my dad and I paused to throw the football in the front yard as I was trying to draw in neighbor friends that enjoyed football. I am very social; I need friends and the affirmation of others. I know, pathetic! My wife often as a joke tells me I'm an 'affirmation slut.' Guilty as charged. After some post routes, slants, and go-routes, I eventually found and met some neighbor friends to form friendships with. Fast forward a month later, in late December 2007, the financial crisis had started. My mother, a former salon owner and hair stylist in Alaska, and my father, an associate pastor at our local church, had taken new jobs in Boise. My mom and dad are some of the most hardworking people I know. As you can imagine for my mother, she gave up her large clientele up north and has to start over from zero. As inopportune as the timing was, they never complained. Scared as they were, they had shown up each day, day after day, after day. As an observant 11-year-old who could ask some impertinent questions at times, I could pick up on the fear and anxiety around the home. This brings me to the topic I aim to discuss in these entries each week... money. As an 11-year-old, the concept of money was that it was anxiety-driven (granted, the times were the 'Great Recession'), scarce, and a touch of shame. These were my formative years around the topic of money and what I can recall from my childhood. I remember my mom on the phone crying to her mom, saying, "Mom, are we going to lose the house? Will you help us so we don't lose the house?" As petrified and scared as I was, it was the tone of our early transition to an unfamiliar place. What I later put into a journal writing was that the concept of money and feeling insecure about it has followed me like a pet ever since. I watched my parents work 50, 60+ hour weeks, and nothing ever felt enough. Why was that happening? I would understand it if they were lazy and weren't working. But that wasn't the case.

For better or worse, those days until now have shaped me more and more into who I am. Whether at times it's anxious, blissful, or just okay, I will be honest and say I think about money a lot. More than I should. What has been helpful, though, is acknowledging I have been insecure about money in the past. It feels like I have a baseline. Only upward from here. The goal with these posts isn't for the mere sake of gain, gain, gain, more, more, more! It's something deeper, whether personal to you, your family, or your community around you. The 'why' for me remains the same: to help further the Kingdom of God, to help those in need, and to help my family. Money in the sake of money is a never-ending game; the absence of financial burden and fear is what we're after. It's to manage, not just to get, but to attract, save, be generous, and invest it. Jeez, paint with a broad brush, why don't you?! There is a ton of bad information I am seeing online and what's being taught by influencers, TV personnel, analysts, and the list goes on. Not only that, there is a disparity between the wealth we see online (faux wealth) and what's actually rational. This is what I aim to tackle. I wanted to shed light on bringing what is often a curse word in most homes to an honest, transparent medium through this site. I want to educate, formalize thought, be rational, teach skills, and connect more with the community that shares it. Lastly, there will be segments, topics, and deep dives into certain topics that need clarity to come! That's it; you made it through this first post. More is coming next Thursday night.

Life is rich.

Kylan