The Story Behind the App

Why The Getting Ahead Guidebook

A system born in the back of a janitorial van — finally living in your pocket.

There was a time in my life when, from the outside, it looked like my wife and I were doing everything right.

We had ambition. We had savings. We had faith in ourselves. And we were ready to build something of our own.

So shortly after we got married, in the mid-1980s, we took what felt like the opportunity of a lifetime — we purchased an established health food business. I’d grown up in two grocery stores my parents owned. My brother had a successful multi-location business. I figured I was a natural.

I was also an avid runner. I took vitamins. I believed in healthy living. In my mind, that somehow translated into knowing how to run a health food store.

I was wrong.

Although we had a substantial bank account, built from prior employment, we also borrowed money to purchase the business. Within just eighteen months, our savings were gone — and we walked away carrying sizeable debt instead of dreams. Luckily, the corporate landlord took pity on us and let us out of our lease.

That failure could have defined us.

Instead, it educated us.

So I started a janitorial company.

And almost immediately, everything changed. In my very first month, I made more money than I’d ever made in my best month at the store.

For the next three and a half years, I worked around the clock. Monday, Wednesday, and Saturday were spent servicing commercial accounts — usually full twenty-four-hour shifts. The other days were filled with residential window cleaning and carpet work.

It wasn’t glamorous. But it worked.

That business paid off every dollar of debt we’d accumulated. It rebuilt our savings. It gave us stability. And in 1988, I sold it successfully. During that same season of life, our daughter was born.

And somewhere in the middle of all that hard work, I began noticing something important:

Making money and keeping money are two completely different skills.

At the time, people talked about status symbols — luxury cars, expensive vacations, the famous black American Express card. None of that interested me.

What interested me was peace.

I began paying close attention to where our money actually went. I noticed that many of life’s biggest expenses weren’t really “monthly bills” at all — they were predictable expenses that simply showed up every six months… every year… always demanding attention.

So I created a system.

And something incredible happened…

The pressure began to disappear.

We weren’t rich. We didn’t take extravagant vacations. We didn’t live without sacrifice.

But we slept better. We argued less. We worried less. And over time, those simple habits changed our financial future.

Today, my wife and I are retired, living on a fixed income. And those same habits we built decades ago still serve us every single day.

That’s why I created The Getting Ahead Guidebook.

Not for the wealthy. Not for the financial experts. But for the people in between — the hardworking people who earn enough to survive, but know life could feel a whole lot different if they just had a simple system.

— Randy & Sandi

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