I'm Kyle, a software engineer based in Tahoe, originally from the Bay Area.

Outside of work, I'm usually traveling, snowboarding, hiking, biking, camping, taking salsa lessons, working out, or spending as much time on the lake as possible. I like building things, staying active, and keeping life relatively simple.

Napkin Math sits at the intersection of all of that: curiosity, practicality, and long-term thinking.

Before becoming a software engineer, I worked as a bartender and restaurant manager. I've always lived frugally, even now, and I relied heavily on free tools on the internet to make smarter financial decisions.

Most of the time, I wasn't doing anything complicated. I was running quick projections to keep myself on track for both short-term needs and long-term goals.

• Am I still on track?
• What happens if I do X instead of Y?
• How does this decision affect me five or ten years from now?

Napkin Math is my attempt to make those kinds of tools easier to access, easier to understand, and easier to find.

I graduated from Berkeley in 2015 and was originally on track to go to law school. But after seriously researching legal careers, I realized I wasn't passionate about the work. Just as importantly, I was uneasy about taking on a massive amount of student loan debt for something I wasn't sure I wanted to do.

The cost mattered. A lot. Committing to decades of repayment without conviction didn't feel like a responsible tradeoff.

Instead of forcing a path that didn't feel right, I chose a different one.

I saved aggressively and spent nearly three years backpacking through Latin America to learn Spanish and explore. Before I left, I ran endless calculations: how much I could spend per day, how changes in lifestyle would affect my runway, and what it would take to extend the trip as long as possible while staying within (or ahead of) my budget.

Those projections weren't fancy. They were simple models built to answer practical questions:

• Can I afford this today and still be okay six months from now?
• What happens if I slow down, or speed up?
• How much flexibility do I actually have?

That way of thinking, balancing freedom, constraints, and long-term consequences, shaped how I approach both life decisions and money. All that saving and budgeting paid off in a big way. It facilitated an awesome three-year stint traveling through Latin America, and it was one of the best things I've ever done. When I came back, I was bilingual, had a ton of once-in-a-lifetime experiences under my belt, and had a clear track to change careers.

Toward the end of my travels in 2019, after meeting a lot of digital nomads and people building unconventional careers, I decided to transition into software development. I found that I genuinely enjoyed building systems, thinking in tradeoffs, and turning rough ideas into something useful. Those same instincts had guided me through years of planning and self-directed problem solving.

Most meaningful financial decisions don't require perfect precision. They require directionally correct thinking, reasonable assumptions, and a clear understanding of tradeoffs.

If a quick model can help you avoid a bad decision or feel more confident about a good one, it's doing its job.

That's Napkin Math.