Sean Pyles

I know.

It's really irresponsible, or it was.

Me 12 years ago was super, super irresponsible with my money, but I've come so far since then.

And I think a lot of it comes back to the fact that I didn't have a long-term plan.

I didn't have a long-term vision.

I was really just super in YOLO mode every single day because that's what you do when you're 22 and your brain isn't fully formed and you're given access to money.

And

I, in some ways, don't regret some of what I did.

Yeah.

I really made the most of it.

But I could tell that I was sliding towards disaster, especially once my tax bill hit.

And I had to get on a payment plan.

I had to reckon with this fact that I just was neglecting my finances.

And it made me...

begin to think about why I was so avoidant with my money because I knew I wasn't being responsible with it.

And then the more avoidant I get, the more irresponsible I would get.

And it was just this really dangerous cycle that I think if I frankly hadn't started working at NerdWallet, I would have been in a much worse off situation because I finally

could use my journalistic skills to learn about money and how to make my money a little bit better.

But so few of us have that financial education, especially when you're in your 20s.

You finally have access to real money and to credit really dangerously for the first time in your life.