Hi everyone! Ray here. After a little hiatus, which allowed for other quality content to be published here (including Melissa’s excellent contributions), I’m back to reconnect with everyone.
It has been nearly 9 years since Squirrelers was launched. Hard to believe it’s been this long!
My idea when starting Squirrelers was to share my tips and my journey on personal finance, to help everyone “Squirrel Away” their money. Like a squirrel, get it? Yes, perhaps a bit cheesy, but it’s a phrase most of us are familiar with.
Since then, I’d estimate that there have been well over 1 million visits to this site, from people all over the globe. I’ve written about and published posts on a variety of topics, including frugality, making money, investing, building wealth, money and family, and a host of other areas. Some of the most popular ones can be seen in the “Best of Squirrelers” tab on the homepage, and you can check out some featured posts that are noted in the sidebars.
I’m also excited to add that I’m now doing professional writing! You can read about that elsewhere on the site as well.
A Little Bit About Ray
So if you haven’t been here in a while….I live in the Chicago area, a father of 2 – single parent at that – and have built a career in analytics and marketing. I’ve worked extensively in healthcare, but have touched other industries as well.
That being said, my educational background includes an MBA in Finance, and prior to that I passed the CPA exam. While I ended up going away from a career that was purely finance-focused, and as I noted moved more toward one in marketing and analytics, my love of finance never really left me. Actually, it stayed with me within the realm of personal finance.
To me, personal finance is but one part of life – but an important one. Much more important to me are relationships and health, to be frank. But, I feel like all 3 of these areas – health, wealth, and relationships – are interrelated. The more you can improve one area, the better the other areas will function. I wrote about this back in 2010 in one of my original posts , and even though I was about 9 years younger then, I still take this same approach.
Better finances = less stress, more freedom, and more flexibility to make choices that involve quality time with people that I care about, and decisions that don’t involve tradeoffs with health. All of that sounds like a better way to live and enjoy life than being stressed about money, right?
Earn.
Save.
Invest.
Manage risks.
Always be learning.
Enjoy every day.
These are things I aspire to these days, and I’m excited about the journey ahead.
I hope you can continue to follow me here, and share your journey with me as well. Email me or use the contact form if you’d like to connect/collaborate.
