Four Kids Later - Issue #001

I'm a dad of four. Ages 10, 12, 15, and 17. We hunt, we camp, we're at soccer fields and baseball diamonds most weekends, and somewhere in between all of that I work a full-time job in corporate finance.

For 15 years I've worked with financial documents, budgets, and numbers that most people never see. And the thing that keeps hitting me is this: the gap between what people earn and what they actually keep isn't usually about income. It's about information.

Benefits packages worth $40K that nobody reads. Insurance policies with gaps that only show up at the worst possible moment. Family budgets built around last year's life instead of this year's reality.

"Nobody hands you a financial playbook when you become a dad. This newsletter is my attempt to write one — in plain English, with zero judgment, from someone who's living the same chaos you are."

Every Sunday I'll send one issue. No fluff. No hustle-bro nonsense. Just real, useful content for dads who are good at life but occasionally want to throw their benefits enrollment packet out a window.

Your family's total compensation — not your salary. Your actual compensation.

Most dads know their take-home pay. Far fewer know what their employer is actually spending on them each year. The difference is usually $15,000–$40,000 and it changes how you think about every financial decision you make.

Here's how to find it this week — takes about 20 minutes:

That final number is what you actually cost your employer — and what you'd need to replace if you ever went out on your own. Most dads are shocked by how high it is. That shock is useful information.

Last season I added up everything we spent on one kid's sports. Registration fees. Gear. Travel. Tournament entry fees. Snacks I definitely said I wasn't buying. It was $2,340. For one kid. One sport. One season.

Multiply that across four kids and different activities and you start to understand why the family budget feels like it has a leak nobody can find.

Next issue I'll break down exactly how we budget for activities across four kids without it derailing everything else. It's not a perfect system but it works — and it involves a spreadsheet I built that I'll share for free.

Know a dad who needs this?

Forward this email to one person. That's the only way this grows — one dad at a time.

The activity budget spreadsheet — how we track and fund four kids in sports, camps, and activities without a meltdown. Plus: the one insurance policy most dads are massively underbuying and don't know it.