This is a story about how one tweet turned my finances around. You see, I was financially illiterate. I was making a six-figure income but didn't understand how to manage it until 9 years into my career. No one ever explained money to me. No one told me that if I saved half my income out of college I’d be retiring at age 38. And if they had, I’m not sure I would have listened. I was contributing to my 401k at work but had no idea how investing worked. I was on auto-pilot. Until my daughter was born and I was about to double the cost of daycare. I felt like I had lost control. Then a random tweet changed. My. Life. In this talk, I'll take you through my financial journey, introduce a life optimization framework, show you how investing works, debug taxes, whisper secrets about HSAs and 457bs, and share how I've implemented these patterns and practices to refactor my life. In less than an hour, you will know everything I wish I knew 10 years ago laid out in plain language.

Given at MDC 2021 and user groups. 50 minute session. Designed for a developer audience.