About Patrick
Hello there, welcome to my personal finance wellness website. Personal finance has been a passion of mine dating back to my time in China as an international student at Hebei University of Science and Technology and also when I worked as a sales manager for a Chinese pharmaceutical company after graduating from University.
I immigrated to the United States ten years ago to start a new life in one of the greatest countries in the world and the land of opportunities. While in the United States, my fascination with entrepreneurship and finance continues to grow. I started reading books like, Think And Grow Rich, The Richest Man In Babylon, and Rich Dad Poor Dad.
After then, I became more interested in knowing more about money and personal finance and wanted to share the information with my friends, family, and my community to help many people who are working hard but are still struggling financially. I’m a Life and Health licensed Insurance Agent who has been working for World Financial Group and World System Builder for almost three years now. I presently help families and clients in MD, VA, KY, and CT.
My Childhood Story About Personal Finance.
I’m an American who was born in Cameroon to a family of six children, four boys, and two girls. I’m second to the last child. I came from a humble background where my parents were very successful farmers who grew cocoa beans and palm trees as a primary source of income. My parents were living in our little hometown or village in the southwest region of Cameroon.
As a young boy, I didn’t have the opportunity to grow up with my siblings and my biological parents. The reason being that my mother’s younger sister had just one child who happens to be a girl, so she pleaded with my mother to send one of her sons to live with her daughter so that she can have the feeling of having a younger brother. My mother loved her younger sister so much and wanted to please her and help with her dream of having a big happy family.
If you are familiar with African culture, you will realize that Africans like a big family, but my mother’s younger sister wasn’t happy because she had just one child. So parents decided that I was the child that will be given to my mother’s younger sister who was a high school teacher in a big city called Kumba. At three years old I started living with my mother’s younger sister who became my foster mother.
My new foster parents were teachers and God-loving people who were Christians. They came from a generation where their parents weren’t educated, so their parents wanted them to be more educated than them. They were told by their parents that, the only way to be successful in life is to go to school, work hard, and get good grades. When you do that and graduate with your degrees you will be able to have a good-paying job with the government or private companies. My sister and I were told the same thing and we had to do the same thing that my foster mom and her husband were told to do by their parents.
Considering the above mentioned, by now you should have noticed that we didn’t have a typical childhood where you might have your dreams or where your parents will ask you what do you want to be in the future. Questions like that weren’t part of our family discussions, but things like how are your scores in math, history, physics, and the list goes on.
I Was Very Passionate About Science And Technology.
During my primary school years my foster parents found out that I was a kind of hands-on guy and was interested in fixing toys, so they decided that I will go to a technical college for my secondary and high school education. So I went to Government Technical High School where I studied Electrical Technology for seven years. And after my high school graduation, I went to China as an international student where I did my BSc at Hebei University of Science and Technology. It was in China where I started thinking differently from my family values and beliefs.
That’s when I realized that my parents never talked about money, financial education, and entrepreneurship, and these things were not taught in schools either. My parents thought that money was evil and they didn’t like to know more or talk about it. We ended up with a lot of family members who were educated, but broke and couldn’t even make ends meet.
My old ways of thinking changed when I was living overseas as a foreign student. I started learning from the Chinese students how to save money and spend less and when I started working for a Chinese pharmaceutical company as a sales manager, I had the opportunity to travel to other Asia countries like Malaysia, Japan, and Singapore.
The more I travel, the more I got to know more about other cultures and also understood the disparity in every country between the middle class and the top five percent and how much these people know about money, personal finance, and entrepreneurship.
After living in the United States for over ten years, I’ve seen a lot of people struggling with money problems because they don’t understand how money works and lack personal financial literacy, I decided to make a difference in people’s lives. In 2018 I joined a campaign for financial literacy, since then I have been educating middle-class and low-income immigrant families on how to manage their finances. I used to do walk-in workshops in family homes and kitchen tables, but with COVID 19, we have to have our workshops on zoom every weekend.
Making A Difference In People’s Lives.
My story is like the story of many immigrant families all over North America who came from the Middle East, Europe, Asia, and Africa and had to start all over in a new environment and sometimes struggled to understand the language, financial concepts, basic finance, and financial products.
As someone who was born in Africa, lived in Asia for over seven years, and experience for the past tens years here I thought it was a good thing for me to create a platform where people can share information and answer questions about basic financial concepts, understanding of some financial products and also do personal finance workshop.
We spend so many years in school learning how to make a living, but we should also invest our time learning the financial basics to save a fortune. I used to live from paycheck to paycheck, but after I learned more about personal finance and basic financial concepts my financial situation has changed and I have helped a lot of families in my community move from financial insecurity to financial independence. I’m very passionate about what I do and I love it.
I love helping people and what I do allows me to meet a lot of people from different communities around this beautiful country. Hopefully, we cross paths in the real world someday and we can make it a better place together.
Be Part Of Personal Finance Wellness.
Wherever you are in your understanding of how money works and personal finance and money journey, I want you to know that you have what it takes to make your financial dreams a reality. And the journey to financial freedom will be the greatest adventure of your life. Please just take the first step and together through this platform we will change people’s lives.
If you ever need a hand or have any questions, feel free to leave them below and I will be more than happy to help you out.
All the best,
Patrick
Founder of Personal Finance Wellness.
NB: The purpose of this website is to provide a general understanding of personal finance, basic financial concepts, and information. It’s not intended to advise on tax, insurance, investment, or any product and service. Since each of us has our own unique situation, you should have all the appropriate information to understand and make the right decision to fit with your needs and your financial goals. I hope that you will succeed in building your financial future.
Olakunle ijelu
I learn a lot true this man and I was lucking to meet him in person. He thought me a lot about finances, how to invest and make money, I was pleased and happy.