Good morning!

I hope this finds you well.

Welcome to another edition of The Matt Viera Newsletter.

The newsletter with the goal to inspire you to invest in life experiences.

Thank you for your continued support.

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When I was in high school, I took a variety of classes.

Aside from the required general education courses, I also took Auto Shop, Wood Shop, and Home Economics.

I can’t remember the last time I changed the oil in a car. The last thing I built out of wood was a napkin holder I made for my mom. And in Home Economics I learned how to make chocolate chip cookies, pretzels, and cheesecake.

And that’s the problem.

Because the one class I truly needed wasn’t offered.

A class on the fundamentals of personal finance.

Because, like everyone else, money is something I have an ongoing relationship with.

And like any relationship, it requires care, adaptation, and continuing evolution.

The extent of my financial education growing up was simple: pay your bills, save your money, and balance your checkbook.

My father used to say, “Save your pennies.”

So I tried.

I opened a savings account and deposited whatever money I had.

A month later, the balance barely changed.

You don’t build wealth earning 0.02 percent interest.

You’re literally earning pennies.

And with that meager education in personal finance, I started working.

I worked, earned money, spent money, and repeated the cycle like most people do.

It wasn’t until I started my current career that things changed.

Shortly after I began, a colleague encouraged me to contribute to our employer-sponsored retirement account. He didn’t just suggest it. He made me promise I would go home that night and set it up.

I was 39 years old when I made my first contribution to that retirement account.

Money has gone into that account every paycheck since.

Today, I have that retirement account, additional investment accounts, an emergency fund, and equity in a home my life partner and I purchased in 2024.

But I often wonder where I’d be if I understood at 19 what I didn’t learn until 39.

Don’t get me wrong, I am incredibly grateful for where I am in life.

But I can’t help but to wonder what options may be available to me if I simply learned about personal finance at 19 rather than 39.

The Lesson

Financial literacy isn’t about becoming rich.

It’s about creating options.

Most people work, get paid, and spend. Year after year. Decade after decade.

What many don’t consider is that one day you may not want to trade your time for money anymore.

Or you may want to be debt free, to experience an extended vacation, or simply have the ability to retire comfortably.

And for many people, those options never materialize.

Most people I know would love to retire one day.

But consider the median retirement savings by age (according to NerdWallet):

Those numbers don’t create many options.

They create dependency on continuing to work.

The earlier you understand how money works, the earlier your money begins working for you.

Small, consistent decisions made early compound into options later.

You don’t need perfect knowledge to start.

You just need to start.

And how do you start?

By learning and applying the fundamentals of personal finance.

What’s the Point of All This?

The point is that most people may believe that they don’t have any option other than work. For decades. And, somehow, their financial problems will magically be solved.

So they continue to work.

Day after day. Year after year. Decade after decade.

Nothing feels urgent. Bills get paid. Life moves forward.

And then one day you wake up and you realize you’re in no better position than you were when you started working.

Sure, you may have the house, the car(s), and the career.

But what you don’t have is what you really need:

Financial stability.

Financial stability doesn’t just buy things.

It buys options.

It buys time.

It buys the ability to make life decisions based on what you want instead of what you must do.

The Final Point

Like most people, I didn’t learn personal finance in a classroom.

I learned it late.

Through self-education, experience, and the encouragement from someone who I barely knew who pushed me to begin.

And that’s what I encourage you to do, if you haven’t yet.

Invest the time to learn. Apply what you learn. And start.

And know that the earlier you start, the better off you’ll be.

Because someday you will want options.

And the decisions you make with money today determine how many options you will have in the future.

Quote that caught my attention:

"Compound interest is the eighth wonder of the world. He who understands it, earns it…he who doesn't…pays it.”

—Albert Einstein

You can find the collection of financial tools & resources that helped me grow from a 6-figure debt to a 6-figure net worth by clicking here.

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