SoFi’s Post

After retiring from a 20-year tenure with the US Navy Seabees, I was diagnosed with a major heart condition. Although the condition did not medically preclude me from working, I chose to prioritize my health and relied on my pension and disability benefits. Amid an uncertain future, my wife and I turned to prayer and realized I needed to improve my financial literacy. Initially overestimating my financial knowledge, I capitalized on the COVID-19 lockdown to use my local library's online resources and platforms like Skillshare and Coursera. Immersing myself in financial news and recommended books such as “A Simple Path to Wealth,” “The Millionaire Next Door,” “A Beginner's Guide to Day Trading Online,” and “Financial Accounting For Dummies,” I laid the groundwork for my financial education. This rigorous self-study period highlighted the common lack of financial awareness and empowered me to start attending webinars and working with financial advisors. Despite significantly improving my financial literacy, I have come to appreciate the continuous value of professional financial advice. My journey reflects the importance of lifelong learning and adaptability in both professional and personal finance realms.

I have to admit, I wasn’t good at saving money at all. As a young man, I would almost always spend my money as soon as it hit my account. My wife was the one who really opened my eyes to saving. Her employer had assigned her a book to read and she asked me to read it when she was done. I won’t disclose it’s title, but it jointly worried both of us that our family had no funds for an emergency. At that time we started saving using the 80/20 (save 80%, spend 20%) rule. And it was actually at that time while evaluating our Savings Account rates with another bank, that we found SoFi. Immediately we were in love with SoFi’s Vaults. We could set a goal, see our progress and SoFi would automatically handle adding a preset amount into that vault whenever we got paid. It eliminated temptation, and it shows us our progress. Not only that but SoFi’s super high APR has assisted us in getting to our goal. We’ve had to use that vault twice (a master bath plumbing emergency which ended up cascading into other issues, & a complete Central A/C replacement). I hope SoFi knows that the problem solving features they have relentlessly developed are accomplishing the vision they set out to solve. Thank you, & please keep breaking barriers! ❤️