Category: Introduction

I founded Think and Talk Money after years of teaching personal finance for lawyers. 

My purpose is to share these principles of personal finance for lawyers with all professionals striving for financial freedom.

I like to think and talk about money. To help us achieve financial freedom, we can’t be embarrassed or afraid to talk about money with our friends and family.

That’s why I’m on a mission to convince people that talking money is not taboo.

I like thinking and talking about life and money.

“If you want to get Matt talking, bring up life and money.”

My wife knows me better than anyone. I like thinking and talking about life and money. That’s why I started teaching financial wellness to law students in 2021 and started this blog in 2024. But, I wasn’t always like that. 

When I graduated law school in 2009, I never thought about money. Within a year, I had racked up $20,000 in credit card debt ($30,000 in today’s dollars), on top of my student loan debt. My salary at the time was $62,000. This was a problem. 

How did that happen? Well, I wasn’t thinking about money. I certainly wasn’t talking about money. I later learned that I had made every money mistake in the book. Rented a fancy apartment I didn’t need? Check. Paid for Cubs season tickets I couldn’t afford? Check. Traveled coast-to-coast? Traveled overseas? Put it all on credit cards? Check. Check. Check.

It’s not that I intentionally decided to get into debt. I generally wanted to make good choices. I am a relatively smart human. You are, too. You’re reading a blog about financial wellness with the entire internet at your fingertips.

Maybe you’re like me, and it hadn’t occurred to you that money was a thing you needed to think about. And to talk about. Preferably with people impacted by your money choices.

I dedicated myself to learning about money.

Since 2010, I’ve dedicated myself to learning about money and its role in crafting a healthy life. I read all the personal finance books. I listened to podcasts. I talked to people I trusted. I kept a money journal.

Along the way, I started to make choices with my money that matched my values.

15 years into learning, and now teaching personal finance for lawyers and professionals, here are a few things to know about me:

I work for clients with mesothelioma, a cancer caused by asbestos.

Since 2011, I’ve represented hundreds of people suffering from mesothelioma, a rare cancer caused by asbestos. Most of my clients are in their seventies and eighties. A significant part of my job since I’ve been in my twenties has been meeting with individuals in their homes after they had just found out they have incurable cancer.

Before we ever get around to talking about the case, we inevitably end up talking about life. I do most of the listening. You can imagine what I’ve learned about life in these moments. Most of my core money beliefs have been shaped by these powerful experiences.

I am a real estate investor and own rental properties in Chicago and Colorado.

In 2018, my wife and I bought our first rental property in Chicago, a 4-flat in an up-and-coming neighborhood. We lived in one unit and rented out the other three.

I’ll never forget riding my bike with my wife and a buddy, heading from the fancy part of the city where I had been living to my new home. I could tell my buddy was skeptical about my new neighborhood.

Finally, he saw something he recognized and said, “Hey, nice! A spin studio!” He saw a sign that read “Cycle Spin.” It was a laundromat.

He wasn’t the only one who was probably thinking, “what is Matt doing?” Well, that 4-flat allowed my wife and I (and eventually two kids) to live for free for six years.

See, the rent we collected covered our mortgage, insurance, taxes, maintenance, and then some. 

With the money we saved, we bought our second rental property in 2019, a nearby 3-flat. In 2022, we purchased another Chicago 3-flat, where my family lived for about two years before moving to our permanent home. My tenants are doctors, lawyers, engineers, TV personalities, pilots, and other young professionals. 

In 2021, we bought a rental condo in Colorado ski country. This had been a dream of mine hatched at The 1800 Club in Evanston during college.

Back then, I amused my friends on many a ski trip by cartwheeling down the mountain as I learned to snowboard. To pay for flights and lift tickets, I took a couple part-time jobs in local offices. I told myself one day I would “Get that Mountain.”

While my wife and I were contemplating life during the height of the pandemic, we determined that a ski condo fit perfectly with our desire to be with family, to be active, and to be outdoors as much as possible.

I started a money journal in 2010.

I started a money journal in 2010. It has been a lot of fun to look at as I launched my financial wellness course and as I’m writing this blog. I’ll refer back to these entries as I share my lessons about personal finance for lawyers and professionals.

Some entries are just scribbles while I worked through that month’s money question.

Some entries go deep. My favorite: I wrote in 2011 that someday I was going to marry the girl I had been dating at that time for the past few months. That girl became my wife in 2017. 

I encourage everyone to keep some sort of money journal. It doesn’t have to be a daily log or a detailed memoir. It will help you think. It will also reinforce the idea that we all need to think about money continuously.

Some of the same challenges I had in my 20’s, are resurfacing today. I am more confident today because I can look back at how I  handled those obstacles back then.

I have taught personal finance for lawyers since 2021.

Since 2011, I’ve taught law students how to research, write, and communicate in the courtroom. We work on finding answers to difficult questions. Oftentimes, there are many possible answers, and we have to think and analyze which is the best for our situation. 

I regularly have coffee with students who want to talk about what comes next after finishing school. I learned that, just like me in 2009, my students didn’t typically think or talk about money and life. They never considered learning about personal finance for lawyers.

I wanted to help them avoid the money struggles that I had experienced at the beginning of my career.

That’s why in 2021, I designed and launched a law school course focused on personal finance for lawyers. My goal with that course, and this website, is to help us all think about using money as a tool to build a life that conforms to our personal values.

The point is not to get rich. Though, you will if that’s your goal and you follow along. The point is to live your life on purpose. Where you actively think and choose what happens next.

Think about why money matters.

The first step is to think about a simple and powerful question: why does money matter?

For me and many others, money is about financial independence, which translates to the power to choose. When we have the power to choose, we have the power to live a life that conforms to our personal values. We can live on purpose, not on auto-pilot.

We can choose to spend our working hours doing what is meaningful to us. We can choose to spend more time with the people that are meaningful to us. We can choose to use money as a tool to do what we want with our lives.

My favorite part during my personal finance for lawyers class is when my students share their motivations with each other. We all learn so much from these honest conversations.

It’s why I believe talking about money is so important. We all benefit from knowing that we’re not alone in our money worries. We can be inspired by hearing what our friends want from their money and their lives.

If nothing else, I want you to think and talk about money.

As a lawyer, I’ve been trained to build upon the work of those who have come before us. Think and Talk Money is my contribution to this essential field of personal finance, building upon what I was so grateful to learn. Not just from authors, but from all the people in my life who talk with me about life and money.

In teaching personal finance for lawyers, I’ve learned that most of us are facing the same challenges. Maybe my voice and my experiences will resonate with you. Maybe not. And that’s ok.

I will be honest about the mistakes I’ve made and the lessons I’ve learned. We’ll talk about motivation, habits, and fundamentals. We’ll talk about careers and goals. We’ll talk about investing in real estate and managing rental properties.

I’ll share my thoughts on key news and developments. I don’t expect you to agree with everything I say. Not every post will be immediately helpful for you. That’s not my goal or even realistic. 

Think just a little bit about money every week.

My goal is to help you think even a little bit about your money choices every week. That way, your money life remains in balance with the rest of your life, and you can continually evolve and adapt your choices as your life changes.

I want to encourage you to think, and to talk, and to choose. If all I do is help you and your loved ones think more purposefully about your money, this website will be a success. 

Maybe your goal is also financial independence, or the power to choose. The power to live on purpose. Maybe it’s something else entirely. Whatever it is, discovering your motivation is the crucial first step. 

It’s so important that I’ll encourage you to think about that motivation every day. I’ve learned that money is something that we all need to think about as a regular part of our lives. Not that we should only think about money. Or that we need to obsess over money. Simply that we can’t ignore money.

How sad is it when we realize our hard earned money has just vanished? That at the end of each month, we have less money?

You’re not alone. There are a lot of smart people who need somewhere to turn learn about money. Or, maybe just a reminder to actively think about their money.

Most of us could use someone to talk to or something to read to help us learn about personal finance for lawyers and professionals.

I hope Think and Talk Money can be that place for you. I can’t, and won’t, tell you what to do with your money. It’s your life, after all. But, I will strive to help you think and talk with purpose about your money.

Here we go.