Hello, I’m FIRE’d Up Dad!

I am a 30-something, married, father-of-one with two simple goals in life: 1) achieve financial independence (FI) for my family and 2) provide my kid(s) the education needed to lead a smart financial life. 

Born and raised in a small Midwestern town, I never formally learned about money or personal finance. I learned it all on my own by pouring over books, blogs, news, podcasts — anything I could find. However, the stories I stumbled upon that provided “top tips” and “everything you need to know” were simply shallow pools of information that seemed entirely designed to drive advertising dollars to make the website owners financially independent – not to help the reader become more financially savvy. 

If you’re a father or a parent, it’s even worse to find information relevant to you and/or to become financially independent. The number of FI information sources narrows tremendously for parents as the most common advice is simply to become a DINK (dual income, no kids). This isn’t an option for me as a father and never something I desired as I want to continue to grow my family.

Unlike extreme FI folks, I am (we are) not urgently seeking early retirement. We strive to live a balanced life that does not test our marriage and keeps our focus on our kid(s) — not money. Time is the most valuable asset I have as a dad and a husband, and I never plan on trading my time to make money when I could spend time with my child(ren).

You may encounter a little of my “fired up” nature come through in the blog. I am a very logical thinker by nature and many of my posts will be based on stupid financial decisions and comments I come across in my day-to-day life. But, with all rants I go on, you can expect to see logical, data-driven responses on how I (and you can) personally approach these situations life. 

I am not financially independent yet and this blog will document my personal journey on the road to Financial Independence Retire Early (FIRE). I hope you also enjoy the musings I have teaching my child(ren) about money. More than anything, my hope is this blog serves as a baseline education for my child(ren) — as well as other kids and parents — on all things needed for kids to make their own sound financial decisions and become financially independent.