Fresh out of USC, I started my career in a Los Angeles firm, where I’d sit before a glowing monitor and meticulously draft clients’ visions in MicroStation, never imagining I’d one day draft my own financial blueprint. My world revolved around massing models and endless client revisions, but I quickly learned that drawing perfect lines on screen didn’t guarantee the freedom I craved.
For the next twenty years, I helped others build their dreams, until one evening I realized I hadn’t built my own. By then I had earned my California architect’s license, completed graduate degrees at UC Berkeley, become a LEED AP, and joined the AIA. I managed projects from a $200K tenant improvement in Indianapolis to a multi-million dollar retail development masterplan along the coast, juggling deadlines, permits, design challenges and budgets so tight they felt like steel-reinforced constraints. High stakes, high speed, high standards, and I thrived. Yet every ribbon-cutting and every “job well done” celebrated someone else’s victory while my personal balance sheet remained eerily silent.
Putting in 50-hour weeks on someone else’s vision isn’t freedom. As rewarding as it was to solve complex problems under pressure, I discovered that my project management skills, resource-forecasting expertise and stakeholder coordination hadn’t translated into an asset of my own. When I finally paused to review my finances, I saw deadline-driven deposits for clients and crickets for myself. That’s when I knew it was time for a change.
I tried flipping houses in the San Francisco Bay Area, convinced my architectural instincts would deliver quick wins in that competitive market. Contractor delays stretched renovations into months, financing partners slipped new fees into contracts at the eleventh hour and late-night site visits became exercises in fatigue rather than value creation. The thrill of adding value vanished in a fog of exhaustion and unpredictable cost overruns.
Next, I dove into multifamily syndications, eager to scale beyond one-off flips. I learned every nuance of underwriting, market analysis and deal structuring, and for a moment it felt like progress. But when capital-raising deadlines loomed, that old churn of stress returned: pitch decks at midnight, investor calls on demand and the constant scramble to lock in commitments. It was in the midst of that pressure that I realized I didn’t enjoy chasing capital under tight timelines.
Not long after that, I transitioned to working from home. My cat, ever the expert in life’s simple comforts, began curling up in my lap as I toggled between zoning codes and underwriting models, gently reminding me that balance matters alongside discipline. Her contented purring became a daily cue, true freedom isn’t just financial but also the flexibility to work on your own terms, and it was the nudge I needed to envision a different path.
Drawing on two decades of managing high-stakes architectural projects and fueled by that newfound clarity I flipped the script and founded Phi-nancial Freedom LLC as a pre-capitalized fund. Instead of chasing capital deal by deal, I secured investor commitments up front and then immersed myself in underwriting, risk analysis and market research with the calm focus of a seasoned project manager. By reverse engineering every assumption from target returns to vacancy buffers I crafted a structure that lets busy professionals invest passively with aligned incentives and predictable returns without ever racing the clock on fundraising again.
Today I help busy professionals diversify their portfolios and supplement their income with real estate. I don’t peddle hype or shortcuts. I bring the same precision and discipline I once applied to million-dollar builds, only now the materials are capital and cash flow. Phi-nancial Freedom’s fund structure aligns incentives, mitigates downside risk and delivers steady, reliable returns that grow alongside your career.
If you’ve been drafting everyone else’s dreams and sidelining your own, consider this your wake-up call. If you’re ready to design your own financial future, visit my contact page to schedule a free consultation. Let’s map out your next move, one deliberate step at a time.