I have an electrical engineering degree. I also have a finance degree and have a breadth of experience in multiple fields. And yet, for a while, I’d been delivering DoorDash and Uber Eats and taking side jobs to pay my bills.
I wish I was just being hyperbolic, but unfortunately that’s my reality, believe it or not.
I’d been laid off. Again. The second time in a career that had already taken more detours than I’d planned. Finance. Engineering. Construction. Years of doing solid work for other people’s companies, and twice those companies decided they didn’t need me anymore. No warning. No plan B. Just a sudden, uncomfortable amount of free time and a bank account that had opinions about it.
So I dove into the gig economy. Picked up odd jobs. Borrowed money from family for nothing but a promise. I did what I had to do to make ends meet.
And somewhere along the line, I started thinking seriously about my father.
What My Dad Knew That I Didn’t
My dad was an entrepreneur his whole life. Not the slick Silicon Valley kind — the scrappy, figure-it-out kind. Law. Nightclubs. Real estate. Airbnb. Tai Chi. He was always building something, always looking for a way to make his own income instead of waiting for someone to hand it to him.
He wanted that for me too. He said it more than once.
I listened. I just didn’t act on it.
My siblings did — both of them built their own businesses. I kept moving from job to job since it was “easier” and “more secure” that way. I kept telling myself maybe I’d figure out the entrepreneurship thing later. Later kept not coming. After several jobs and two layoffs plus a rather long job search, later seemed to be more urgent. Unfortunately, I don’t have my dad anymore, but I do still have the things he taught me.
Growing up in Hawaii gives you a particular relationship with the idea of freedom. You grow up surrounded by something genuinely beautiful and it sets a standard. Life is supposed to feel like something. Not just a series of jobs and obligations and someday-maybes.
I was tired of someday.
Why This, Why Now
During my newfound free time, which at first did not seem like a good thing, I started to search for ways I could use my knowledge to make at least some side money without having to rely on a traditional job. Of course, one of the things that started to catch my attention was AI and I started looking into it more seriously. Not the hype — the practical reality of what it actually lets regular people do now.
What I found was that the gap between “person with an idea” and “person with an actual business” had gotten a lot smaller. Building a website, launching a brand, or running a content operation used to take a whole team. Now, all of it is within reach for one person willing to put in the work.
I didn’t have a trust fund. I didn’t have investors. I had a laptop, a story, and a name I wanted to honor.
My dad’s name was Richard. Rich.
That’s where The Richer Road came from.
What This Place Actually Is
I want to be straight with you about something.
I’m not writing this from the other side of success. I haven’t retired early or built a passive income empire yet. I’m building this in real time, sharing what I’m learning as I learn it, and being honest about where I am in the process.
What you’ll find here is research I actually do, strategies that have worked for real people, and an honest account of what it looks like to try to build financial freedom from scratch. Personal finance. Income streams. The lifestyle that becomes possible when money stops being a source of panic.
Two things I’ll be covering regularly. The first is what I call Rich on a Budget — how to live well without pretending you’re already rich. The second is Living Richer — the aspirational side, where we’re headed and what it actually looks like when the work pays off.
Neither one is fantasy. Both are grounded in real strategies and real numbers.
Why You Might Want to Stick Around
If you’ve never had a moment where your financial situation forced you to seriously rethink how you were living, this might not be for you.
But if you have — if you’ve ever had the rug pulled out from under you, or realized that doing “everything right” still wasn’t getting you ahead — then you’re exactly who I built this for.
My dad spent his whole life trying to build something on his own terms. It’s time I did the same.
Welcome to The Richer Road.