Meet The Creators
They say an apple doesn't fall far from the tree, and as the son of two CPAs, I can tell you they weren't lying. I've been passionate about money for as long as I can remember, whether it was in 4th grade asking my mom how to do taxes, or feeling frustrated at 11 years old that the birthday money I'd accumulated wasn't earning any interest.
More recently, I graduated from Texas A&M University in 2016 with my bachelor's in Finance, and from there started my own financial practice through Northwestern Mutual. I loved everything about the business, except, well, the business part of it. See, the last thing I wanted in my pursuit to empower others was for people to question whether I was in it for them or for me. I constantly found myself daydreaming about ways that I could add value to people without any ulterior motive or conflict of interest - just plain old, no-strings-attached financial help. Creating BudgetForLife is one of those dreams coming to life, and I can only hope you find it to be as enjoyable and useful as I have.
Blessings on your financial journey,
Jeremy Biar
More recently, I graduated from Texas A&M University in 2016 with my bachelor's in Finance, and from there started my own financial practice through Northwestern Mutual. I loved everything about the business, except, well, the business part of it. See, the last thing I wanted in my pursuit to empower others was for people to question whether I was in it for them or for me. I constantly found myself daydreaming about ways that I could add value to people without any ulterior motive or conflict of interest - just plain old, no-strings-attached financial help. Creating BudgetForLife is one of those dreams coming to life, and I can only hope you find it to be as enjoyable and useful as I have.
Blessings on your financial journey,
Jeremy Biar
Growing up as a homeschool student, I found fun in some less than typical places. I was always drawn to numbers and logic...and have memories of building my first spreadsheets at age 5 as an alternative to playing outside in Quebec's subzero temperatures.
Years later, I graduated with my Bachelor's in Mathematics from Princeton University and am now a graduate student in mathematics at Duke University in Durham, NC. Given that the math I study day-to-day is quite abstract, it's refreshing to have some numbers in life that are straightforward and easy to understand. As the brains behind much of the spreadsheet, my goal is that everyone who uses BudgetForLife would experience their finances in the same way - refreshing, straightforward, and easy. I consider it a joy to get to use my giftings to create something that even the least money-savvy person can appreciate and benefit from. Be careful though, if you start using BudgetForLife, you might just never go back :)
Wishing the best for you and your numbers,
Eric Hopper
Years later, I graduated with my Bachelor's in Mathematics from Princeton University and am now a graduate student in mathematics at Duke University in Durham, NC. Given that the math I study day-to-day is quite abstract, it's refreshing to have some numbers in life that are straightforward and easy to understand. As the brains behind much of the spreadsheet, my goal is that everyone who uses BudgetForLife would experience their finances in the same way - refreshing, straightforward, and easy. I consider it a joy to get to use my giftings to create something that even the least money-savvy person can appreciate and benefit from. Be careful though, if you start using BudgetForLife, you might just never go back :)
Wishing the best for you and your numbers,
Eric Hopper
How BudgetForLife Came To Be
It's hard to tell the story of BudgetForLife without going back to when we first met as freshmen in high school. Eric was taking calculus (yes, his freshman year), and I (Jeremy) was filling my time researching stocks and listening to Dave Ramsey. However, even we ambitious high schoolers needed an outlet of rest and recreation. For us, that was playing disc golf. It wasn't long though before one of us had the idea: "What if we made a spreadsheet to track our scores over time? We'll be able to tell which holes are our best and worst, know the stroke difference between the beginner and advanced tees, and see how quickly we improve!" I guess you could say our definition of recreation is a little odd, because we were ecstatic.
We spent years inputting data from over 100 rounds of disc golf, but as we moved onto college, we were ready for a new challenge. We talked about building a spreadsheet more complex and much more useful: a budget system. So again, we went to work (and again, we recognized that our version of "fun" is, um, interesting, to say the least). Much has happened since we first started working on this budget: we've moved cities, earned college degrees, and even found our spouses (and served as groomsmen in each others' weddings), but BudgetForLife has grown along with us.
We've all heard it said that "time flies when you're having fun," and that's certainly been our experience making BudgetForLife. There's something special about a beautiful, informative spreadsheet; we think it's an underappreciated joy of this life, and we're happy to share ours with you :). So, while we wish we could wow you with a long list of personal accomplishments, we're really just two normal guys. Or, mostly normal.
We spent years inputting data from over 100 rounds of disc golf, but as we moved onto college, we were ready for a new challenge. We talked about building a spreadsheet more complex and much more useful: a budget system. So again, we went to work (and again, we recognized that our version of "fun" is, um, interesting, to say the least). Much has happened since we first started working on this budget: we've moved cities, earned college degrees, and even found our spouses (and served as groomsmen in each others' weddings), but BudgetForLife has grown along with us.
We've all heard it said that "time flies when you're having fun," and that's certainly been our experience making BudgetForLife. There's something special about a beautiful, informative spreadsheet; we think it's an underappreciated joy of this life, and we're happy to share ours with you :). So, while we wish we could wow you with a long list of personal accomplishments, we're really just two normal guys. Or, mostly normal.
