I'm currently working toward my degree in economics, and somewhere around sophomore year, I had a quiet realization: I'd been making money decisions for two years without ever pausing to understand what they truly cost me.
It wasn't dramatic. No maxed-out credit card, no crisis. Just a series of small, perfectly reasonable choices - a subscription here, a minimum payment there, savings left sitting in a checking account earning next to nothing - that, together, added up to a less favorable outcome than the one I could have had if I'd simply understood a few foundational trade-offs.
That realization is what this whole page is built around: opportunity cost. It's one of the first concepts taught in any economics course, and at its heart, it's beautifully simple - every choice you make means giving up the next-best option you didn't choose. Spend $6 on coffee today, and that's also $6 not sitting in a savings account earning interest, or $6 toward next week's textbook. Neither choice is wrong. But only one is usually made intentionally, with the trade-off actually in view.
Here's what I've come to believe: most people don't make poor money decisions because they're bad with money. They make them because the cost was invisible - nobody ever sat them down and showed them the number. That's the gap I want this space to close, together, one honest conversation at a time.
OppCost isn't about willpower. It's about understanding the psychology behind why long-term money decisions are so hard, and using that knowledge to make them anyway.
That's what this page is built to do: I share what I'm learning as I learn it, grounded in real research and real behavioral economics, not just what to do with your money, but why your brain resists doing it, and apply it to real, everyday decisions - through three pillars, Debt-Free Habits, Money Mindset, and Investing for the Long Game, so you can build a foundation now that carries you well through your twenties and beyond.
Welcome. I'm glad you're here for the long game.