I’ve Been There…

About Me

In 2011, we took Dave Ramsey's Financial Peace University thinking I would learn how to budget and pay down some debt. What we didn't realize was that my past "mistakes" — the ones I thought were normal — had compounded into over $100,000 of debt. I knew I had debt. I didn't know I had that much.

My now-wife Nadia and I sat down at our dining room table and did our first budget together. She had just graduated college with no job yet, and I was a struggling music professor with two degrees, barely making ends meet. When we finished the budget, Nadia began to cry. She asked, "How are we going to pay for all of this?"

I said, "I don't know. But we have to have a plan."

From that day, we sacrificed everything. We worked extra jobs. I took late-night music gigs. I was a college professor with a master's degree delivering pizzas for Domino's with a 6-month-old at home — living the rice and beans life. Twenty-six months later, we paid off $106,000 and stood in Nashville to do our debt-free scream at Ramsey Headquarters.

WE'RE DEBT FREE!!!

That moment changed our family tree forever. It opened doors I never imagined — including the opportunity to change careers and become a pilot, something I had always dreamed of.

Today, we're still debt free. Still cash only. We've paid cash for three cars, for flight school, and for emergencies along the way. We have a fully-funded emergency fund and two kids who are growing up in a home where money is never a source of fear.

Since that dining room table moment, I've led Financial Peace University over 15 times. I've sat with couples and individuals, walked them through the process, and watched lives change. But I kept seeing the same thing: for many people, a dedicated coach would have made all the difference — someone available between sessions, someone to talk through the hard decisions, someone to keep them moving when motivation ran dry.

If I could go back and do one thing differently, it would be to hire a coach from day one. Someone to walk beside us through the financial decisions, the pitfalls, the mistakes — and the wins. It would have been invaluable.

That's exactly what I do now at Cleared 4 Wealth.

I'm not here to make you dependent on me. My goal is to work myself out of a job with you — to get you to a place where you're confident, in control, and don't need me anymore. Because that's what financial freedom actually looks like.

If you're sitting at your own dining room table right now, looking at the numbers and asking, "How are we going to pay for all of this?" — I know the answer. And I want to show you.