About Me

I more or less fumbled my way to financial success. I came from a loving, nurturing and supportive home, but not a financially wealthy one. I never set out to be rich, but from an early age I was very motivated not to be poor either. Probably since about junior high I’ve made an inordinate amount of decisions based on the financial impact they would have on me. That way of thinking has its downsides, but I’d like to think on the upside that it’s given me several years to observe, learn and consider a great deal about providing for oneself. I did well in school knowing that was the only way to have a chance at college. I got a business degree to make sure I would end up employable. Eventually I was employed by a couple different Fortune 500 companies and worked my way from pretty near the bottom up to a Senior Manager level. With the money I was able to save I’ve managed my own investments, along with my wife, in financial markets as well various forms of real estate. I’ve made plenty of mistakes and I've learned a lot of shareable lessons along the way.

I imagine that the vast majority of people have a strong inclination to help other people, given any reasonable opportunity. The way that shows up for me is in finding ways to empower others. My favorite parts of my professional career have always been things like knowledge sharing, coaching and mentoring. Prior to that I spent a few years as a massage therapist, with a focus on supporting healing chronic injuries. And even well before that (all the way back to junior high again) my first paid job was tutoring schoolmates in math. Even outside the workplace I enjoy finding ways to empower others. I practice and teach Aikido, and I’ve had several ongoing volunteer positions, including instructional support for adult basic education and job skills, and basic handyman work to help seniors in my neighborhood be able to age in place. It's a wide array of activities, but all with the theme of empowering others.

Through Savvy Trail, I'd like to make widely available the tips and tricks, perspective, knowledge, habits and everything else that gets acquired through financial experience. I see a significant amount of financial hardship that's a result of people just not being aware of their options, or not understanding the implications of their decisions. That isn't a shortcoming of individuals either. Other than being fortunate enough to have people in your life who can share these lessons, there's no reasonable way for people to learn them without making their own mistakes. There are plenty of economic hurdles that can hold people back, some of them seem insurmountable to address, but I believe access to information just shouldn't be one of them. That's a solvable problem. Sharing what we know to empower others costs us nothing. I recognize that my own experience, even supplemented with research, is still pretty limited. That's why I want to invite you to contribute to Savvy Trail too. Together, our collective experiences and understanding can provide the breadth and depth of information that could help countless people achieve financial success, and maybe even prevent them from repeating our mistakes. I hope you'll join me.

David Zeger