Hi, I’m David, a writer, entrepreneur, and therapist-in-training from Portland, Maine 🦞.
I founded Money Under 30 and ran it for nearly 20 years before selling it. From time to time, I still write articles here on topics that interest me.
Here are a few things I’ve done over the decades:
Since 2024, I have been working on my master’s degree in clinical mental health counseling at the University of Southern Maine. I completed a practicum in Fall 2025 with OUTMaine, counseling LGBTQ+ youth. In January I will begin my clinical internship with Fairwinds Counseling & Consulting, delivering counseling services to employees of L. L. Bean through the corporation’s employee assistance program (EAP).
In 2022, I came close to purchasing a local printing and vinyl wrapping business. When that deal fell through, I rebounded into investing in a physical therapy franchise. I nearly inked a 10-year lease to open my first clinic as an investor, but drawn-out negotiations with the landlord gave me pause (and I’m glad they did). Not only was my heart not in it, I now have doubts it would’ve been profitable given the expensive real estate and labor markets here in the Northeast.
In 2009, I married my high school sweetheart and had two beautiful daughters.
In 2006, I founded Money Under 30, a blog about personal finance for others in their twenties. Over the years, the website grew into a full-time business with several full-time employees. I sold the site in 2018, worked for the new owners, repurchased the site, then sold it again.
Between 2004 and 2009 I worked in marketing for the publisher of EMS training textbooks, a search engine optimization agency, and a small software company. I also spent a good amount of time moonlighting in coffee shops.
In 2003, I took my first full-time job on the editorial staff of SmartMoney, a personal finance monthly co-owned by Dow Jones and Hearst Magazines.
From 1999 to 2003, I attended and graduated from Bates College in Lewiston, Maine. I studied sociology and worked for the student newspaper, serving as editor-in-chief during my senior year. While in college, I completed internships with Inc. and SmartMoney magazines that piqued my interest in entrepreneurship and investing. I also took flying lessons and earned my private pilot’s license.
Prior to 1999, I was born and raised in a small Massachusetts town. I became an Eagle Scout and passionately served as a volunteer emergency medical technician (EMT). It was in high school that I met my remarkable wife, Lauren, who is now a brilliant and compassionate estate planning attorney here in Maine.