Stephen R. Smith

I grew up on a farm in rural Michigan and graduated from Cass City High School in 1989. I briefly attended Central Michigan University before joining the US Air Force in 1991. I completed my undergraduate degree from Chapman University in Orange, CA, in Computer Information Systems. I have three children from my first marriage and share three more children from my second marriage. After 25 years as an IT professional, I decided to write a book about personal finances. Why? In some ways, it was a perfect storm of opportunity (I had time), desire (I had always toyed with the idea of writing a book), and need (several family members were struggling with their finances.)

There are thousands of books already published on this topic, so my goal was never to break the top seller charts and compete with the likes of Suze Orman. Writing Common Cents was purposeful as a way to share my journey achieving financial independence in a way I thought my family would consume. It was also a creative outlet to create something that was a tangent from my usual areas of focus on business and technology. If Common Cents helps you in any small way to improve your financial intelligence, then it will have proven to be time well spent.