Jaiman Desai
Founder / CEO of Reconcile Money
Jaimin is the Founder / CEO of Reconcile Money, a B2B fintech + tax startup which aims to democratize financial services for the non-rich and level the playing field.
Income Details
I started my career as an underpaid entry-level consultant at BAH after college.
Then I became a founder and didn't pay myself anything for the first two and a half years. After raising funding, I paid myself in tranches and was at a salary of $60K for about a year and a half before increasing it to $90K more recently.
Investing, Saving and Spending Philosophy
"Never spend more than you have and avoid getting into debt, especially credit card debt. It can become a real burden later in life.
For my own investments, I'm not super aggressive, but I do take some chances here and there because I’m young and can afford to. With retirement accounts, I keep things a bit safer.
That being said, I think it's important to enjoy life and not worry too much about every dollar. Of course, it's important to be responsible and avoid making big financial mistakes that will hurt you in the long run. But if you can comfortably pay for something you really want to do, go ahead and splurge a little! Just don't go into debt over it.
My philosophy for investing is that it’s actually more important to focus on optimizing your earnings potential rather than your investments. For example, I've shifted my focus away from worrying too much about my investments because I'm prioritizing my equity in my startup and before that my consulting work. If you can focus on building a strong career now, that will pay off more in the long run than obsessing over investments when your earnings are lower.
"Never spend more than you have and avoid getting into debt, especially credit card debt. It can become a real burden later in life.
For my own investments, I'm not super aggressive, but I do take some chances here and there because I’m young and can afford to. With retirement accounts, I keep things a bit safer.
That being said, I think it's important to enjoy life and not worry too much about every dollar. Of course, it's important to be responsible and avoid making big financial mistakes that will hurt you in the long run. But if you can comfortably pay for something you really want to do, go ahead and splurge a little! Just don't go into debt over it.
My philosophy for investing is that it’s actually more important to focus on optimizing your earnings potential rather than your investments. For example, I've shifted my focus away from worrying too much about my investments because I'm prioritizing my equity in my startup and before that my consulting work. If you can focus on building a strong career now, that will pay off more in the long run than obsessing over investments when your earnings are lower.
"Never spend more than you have and avoid getting into debt, especially credit card debt. It can become a real burden later in life.
For my own investments, I'm not super aggressive, but I do take some chances here and there because I’m young and can afford to. With retirement accounts, I keep things a bit safer.
That being said, I think it's important to enjoy life and not worry too much about every dollar. Of course, it's important to be responsible and avoid making big financial mistakes that will hurt you in the long run. But if you can comfortably pay for something you really want to do, go ahead and splurge a little! Just don't go into debt over it.
My philosophy for investing is that it’s actually more important to focus on optimizing your earnings potential rather than your investments. For example, I've shifted my focus away from worrying too much about my investments because I'm prioritizing my equity in my startup and before that my consulting work. If you can focus on building a strong career now, that will pay off more in the long run than obsessing over investments when your earnings are lower.
"Never spend more than you have and avoid getting into debt, especially credit card debt. It can become a real burden later in life.
For my own investments, I'm not super aggressive, but I do take some chances here and there because I’m young and can afford to. With retirement accounts, I keep things a bit safer.
That being said, I think it's important to enjoy life and not worry too much about every dollar. Of course, it's important to be responsible and avoid making big financial mistakes that will hurt you in the long run. But if you can comfortably pay for something you really want to do, go ahead and splurge a little! Just don't go into debt over it.
My philosophy for investing is that it’s actually more important to focus on optimizing your earnings potential rather than your investments. For example, I've shifted my focus away from worrying too much about my investments because I'm prioritizing my equity in my startup and before that my consulting work. If you can focus on building a strong career now, that will pay off more in the long run than obsessing over investments when your earnings are lower.
To summarize, my advice for young people is:
- Be responsible with your money
- but don't be afraid to enjoy life a little
- and focus on building a strong career to optimize your earnings potential in the long run."
Portfolio Composition Breakdown
Financial Stack
- Bank of America for banking
- Mostly use Chase United Quest, Marriott Bonvoy Rewards. I also have Discover, United Explorer, and the Chase Freedom card that I don’t use but did before for rewards.
- Brex for main spending, Hyatt for rewards, and Amex Business, which I don’t really use much anymore. I have a bunch of airline credit cards too
- For brokerages, I use Robinhood a little bit, but I'm trying to get off of it and move more money into TD Ameritrade for tax optimization. They make it easier to track your basis when trading stocks.
- Coinbase and Metamask for crypto, but not anymore.
- And I use Fidelity for my brother's account that I manage.
- I use Novo for my company’s banking
- I use Vanguard for my Roth IRA.