My obsession with personal finance started during my freshman year at the University of Pennsylvania. I arrived at my dream school with a generous financial aid package and a part-time job, feeling confident I could graduate with minimal debt. My lifelong goal was to become a tech entrepreneur, and I was enrolled in a dual-degree program studying both computer science and finance.

Then came the email that changed everything—the financial aid office rescinded my aid halfway through freshman year.

After some failed transfer applications, I decided to stay at Penn. I’d like to say it was purely academic, but truthfully, I had also just met a girl I really liked. To minimize costs, I overloaded on classes to graduate early and took on side jobs to make extra money. Still, by the time I graduated, I had about a quarter million dollars in high-interest debt. My entrepreneurial dreams had to be put on hold until I could free myself from that burden. So, I took the highest-paying corporate job I could find, lived frugally with my best friend Brendan in a tiny shack, and rode an e-bike to save on transportation.

During this time, I dove deep into personal finance literature, learning how to make smart money moves and accelerate my path to financial freedom and entrepreneurship. Friends and colleagues started asking me for advice, and I loved sharing what I had learned. Traditional financial advisors didn’t seem to fit their needs relative to the cost and robo-advisors were not nearly comprehensive enough.

After a few years of hard work and healthy financial habits, I was finally in a position to pursue my dream of starting a company. Brendan, my best friend from the shack, had become a talented engineer and shared my ambition to build something meaningful. Together, we decided to create Fifr, a platform designed to help others achieve their own version of financial freedom. Oh yeah, and that girl I met during freshman year? I’m now lucky enough to call her my wife.