About Me

Thanks for visiting the Level Zero Investor blog and coming to learn more About Me!

My name is Brett and I am the author/owner of the Level Zero Investor blog.

I want to start off by telling you why I created this blog. What is my Why? And by understanding my “Why”, you’ll find out how this blog can help you too!

Why Write this Blog?

I am doing this because I don’t want people to do what I did.

What did I do? Probably the same as every other person out there. I did what was “expected”.

I thought I was supposed to go to school, get good grades, and go to college. Graduate and find a good career. Find the love of my life, get married, have kids, and raise a family. Open a 401(k) and work till I was 65 years old then retire off into the sunset. That was the path I thought everyone took. That is what I did.

And don’t get me wrong, I would change nothing. The life I have is a great life. An amazing wife and kids. Great job. Solid 401(k).

However, I started to realize something as I got older and my children got older. I wanted to spend more time with my family. I didn’t want to wait until I was 65 years old to earn that freedom to spend my time how I wanted.

And TIME is something you can’t get back.

How Do I Get More Time? Can Investing Do That?

You can’t go back in time, to get more time. So how do I earn more future time?

This is when I discovered that Investing is the tool I can use to “buy more time.”

I also discovered I knew nothing about investing. The Stock Market, the terms, the graphs, the risk of losing money…it seemed like a foreign language.

However, I saw this one quote and it changed how I thought of everything.

“Make your money, make you more money.”

I realized I was working a job, trading my time for money, to make someone else more money. I was giving away my time, in hopes that I can relax in the future, when I should be finding a way to earn money from my own money.

If investing was the strategy to accomplish this, I wanted in.

Before telling you where to start, I would love to share a little more about me personally.

The Most Important Thing to Me – My Family

I can’t start to tell you about who I am, without first talking about my family. My family is the most important thing to me. My family is the reason why I get up every day and give them my all.

First and most importantly, my better half and the love of my life, my wife Elizabeth. We met in college and have been married for over 10 years now. She and I are a perfect pair, we complement and complete each other. As with any good marriage or partnership, we work as a great team to leverage each other’s strengths.

I also have three children: Logan, Colton, and Ella. Between these three, there is never a dull (or quiet) moment in our house. With sports, school, church, dance lessons, riding bikes and scooters, listening to music, or watching movies, we live a very full life. And it is true what they say, “The Days are Long, but the Years are Short.” They grow up so fast, and I don’t want to miss anything!

Other things that I enjoy, are sports and food. My favorite sport is football, even more specifically, Detroit Lions football. Every Sunday is spent watching football…and Monday nights…and Thursdays…and Saturdays…haha. And you can’t watch sports without eating good food! I love cooking, baking, grilling, smoking, you name it! My favorite thing to grill/smoke is pork shoulder for Pulled Pork. My favorite thing to bake: is Blueberry Cobbler. Favorite Meal: Homemade Pizza (it’s also a good way to get the whole family involved in making dinner).

Where to Start? The Hardest Question to Answer When You’re Starting at Level Zero.

So I decided that I wanted to earn future time by investing however, I didn’t know where to start.

I struggled.

The only thing I knew about investing and the Stock Market, is that you want to Buy Low and Sell High.

At least in video games, generally, you start at Level One. You started somewhere. I was at Level Zero.

How do I start?

I discovered that before I invest my money, I need to invest in myself.

In college, I got my undergrad in Biomedical Sciences with a minor in Statistics and a Master’s degree in Biostatistics. I know numbers, and I know how to analyze them. But I didn’t know how numbers are applied to businesses and companies.

It was time to learn again.

To invest in myself, I started by:

Reading Books
Reading Blogs
Listening to Podcasts
Watching YouTube videos

There are plenty of resources out there!

My very first step was reading the book, Rich Dad Poor Dad by Robert Kiyosaki. While this book was not specific to investing in the Stock Market, it made me think differently about personal finances and what we consider rich versus poor. The book reminded me of how I did what was expected. I was Poor Dad. But I didn’t need to be! There were other options available that I needed to learn.

I highly recommend you start by reading this book.

Now You Need to Find Your “Why”

Now that you know why I created this blog, and how I want to get more time to spend more time with my family, and how I got started, it is your turn!

It’s not enough to want to start investing but to have a reason why you want to start investing.

Find your reason, find your why, and take your first step!

Having a hard time finding a reason to start investing? Read my article on Top 5 Reasons Why You Should Invest.

Thanks for reading and learning more about me. Don’t hesitate to reach out via email or social media, I would love to chat and help you learn to invest starting from Level Zero!