I’m Scott Bates, the creator of Money and Bills.
I’m a San Francisco Bay Area native and began my career back in 1999 as an IT Professional. I’ve always had a natural curiosity for how money works. That led me to buy my first home at the age of 21. Since then, I’ve seen the dot-com crash, the great recession of 2008, and 20 years of fluctuating prices in the stock and real estate markets.
Over the years I’ve learned how to leverage real estate by owning my house and not paying rent. This has kept my monthly living costs fixed and sheltered from landlords who want to keep raising the rent. Also, by owning your own home, you can be a live-in landlord and rent out a room for extra money if you want. I’ve done this on several occasions to help pay the mortgage down and save an emergency fund.
With over 20 years of perspective for dealing with the ups and downs of personal finance and saving up a lot of money over the years, it inspired me to start Money and Bills. I want this website to be a collection of articles to help inspire and build financial awareness for it’s readers. Some of the articles are written by me. But, eventually, many of them will be contributed from other people’s stories and from writers who have something of value to share.
These famous quotes set the mission of this site perfectly!
“Formal education will make you a living. Self-education will make you a fortune.”
………. by: Jim Rohn
“Whether you think you can or you can’t, either way, you are right!”
………. by: Henry Ford
“The greatest competitive advantage is knowledge!”
………. by: Mark Cuban
In my free time (when I’m not working on Money and Bills)
In my free time, I enjoy driving my Ford Mustang GT, sailing on the SF Bay with my friends, enjoying the outdoors, shopping at flea markets, and playing The Legend of Zelda. I also enjoy flipping items on eBay.
