About Me

I’m a family guy living in Colorado with my wife and two young children. I studied biology and chemistry in college, but somehow turned into a software developer. I’m 39 41 and my goal is to retire in 1500 days at the age of 43.

From as far back as I can remember, I liked to save and earn money. As a young child, my parents paid me the princely sum of 2$/week to mow the lawn, trim the hedges and pick up piles of dog logs. I loved it. Well, maybe not the part about the dogs.

My grandmother also helped form my monetary policy by harping on my sisters and I about saving money. Whenever visiting, grandma would sneer at us and say, “SAVE YOUR MONEY!!” I was half scared and half amused, but the message sunk in.

In college, one of my girlfriend’s professors recommended that she attend a particular money management seminar and I went along for the ride. It was a weekend class run by a non-profit group that taught the basics of saving money and investing. The presenters discussed mutual funds, the importance of starting early, compound interest and a variety of other topics.

This may have been the most valuable weekend of my life. The fire was lit. When I got my real first job out of college, I spurned desires to buy a nice car and most other pent up material urges. I maxed out my retirement accounts instead. Saving always came first.

I found a wife that shared my beliefs. In addition to maxing out our retirement accounts, we also started flipping houses. We would buy an older home, fix it up over the course of 2 years and then sell it. Because we lived there for at least 2 years, we were free of any capital gains. Life was/is good.

However, I’ve always been a bit disturbed by the American consumerist mentality. We live in a disposable society. Some people will trade in perfectly good car just because they want a new one. Others buy new wardrobes every year or $500+ purses. I can’t understand or relate to this behavior, especially when these flashy items are financed with credit cards.

At the same time, I started reading about other folks like myself that took it one step further. They saved and invested like me, but also retired early in life. I sat down and figured out how I could do it too. At the same time, I read a post from Mr. Money Mustache about the value of making a goal public. The idea for this blog was born.

I hope to accomplish a couple things here at 1500days.com:

• Encourage and inspire others to abandon their consumer, spendaholic ways in favor of a more fulfilling existence. Our time on this blue-green, oblate spheroid is short. Let’s make the most of it.
• Learn. No matter how good you think you’re doing with an investment or saving money, someone is doing a better job. I look forward to interacting and learning from readers. If you have a good story or would like to guest post, I’m all ears.

In closing, I hope you learn something here and I look forward to learning something from you.

Mr. 1500, 1/6/2013