Login or Sign up
Start Now

Fresh Perspective Interview with Wojciech Kulicki

Written by Aaron Pinkston, Mon, Mar 15 2010
This is about true stories

Recent Postings

Featured in Alltop The Yakezie Challenge

Topics

 

Every Monday morning, I help you get a kick start to your week with a fresh perspective. This week, I’m excited to present an interview I did with someone I know better as Wojo.

Wojciech Kulicki is the 26-year-old behind the personal finance blog Fiscal Fizzle. Wojciech is an architect by day, but found himself annoying everyone with endless chatter about money. To save his marriage and friendships, he started a blog to teach others what he’s learned along the way. Wojciech lives in Southwest Florida with his awesome wife and newborn son.

AP: So by day, you’re an architect. Both my mom and dad studied drafting in college and I grew up with plans and drawings. I’d actually love to hear what types of projects you work on and the direction you see architecture headed today.

WK: Not surprisingly, architects don’t really do what most people envision us doing. We’re portrayed in movies and TV shows as having glamorous offices, a team of interns to build our 10-foot-tall scale models, and fancy suburban mansions (that we’ve designed, of course). “Starchitects” (i.e. architects who gain international recognition, are probably the few with that lifestyle), the rest of us meanwhile are pretty happy living on the “down low” and doing the daily things that make the built world around us click.

I’m going to try to avoid sounding pessimistic to start off the interview, but the situation in our field is not that good. Unfortunately, because of the recent downturn hitting architecture so hard, I’ve not only seen 95% of my friends and colleagues laid off, but the type of work has changed dramatically. Long gone are the days when we designed modern commercial buildings, medical offices, and multi-story residential complexes. These days, I’m working mostly on renovations and much smaller commercial projects, like shops and gatehouses. It’s bread-and-butter work that pays the bills, but it’s definitely not the glamorous design that most people think of when they hear “architecture.” Hopefully, the market (and the cool work) comes back quickly, but only time will tell.

The direction of architecture today is definitely toward sustainability. Everything in the last 3-4 years has been about “green” and our industry is pushing that hard. Our job now is really to slice through the claims and figure out what’s just a smokescreen, and which products are truly sustainable. Clients are beginning to embrace the concept, too, even at a higher price tag. Technology will also play a much bigger role in the future. From buildings modeled in 3D during design and construction, to the latest “smart building” technologies, computers are going to be involved in everything we do and how we live.

AP: And were did you interest in money come from?

WK: My interest in money definitely started during childhood. My parents always emphasized the importance of money as something that would enable an easier and more comfortable lifestyle if managed properly. Income was never as important as what you did with the money once you had it.

I guess those principles reach back even farther in my life. My grandparents were born (and still live in) Poland. Having been surrounded by poverty during most of their lives until the last few decades, my grandfather’s work ethic, principles, and ability to squeeze every last drop from the little money they had was (and still is) amazing and inspiring. He was able to build his own home for cash and make a good life for his family.

My interest in money continued into adulthood. I continued to innovate in terms of the systems I was using, how I was spending money, and gaining the financial experience that got me to where I am today. Whenever I had free time, I was either writing or talking about money with someone. It was only natural that I would start a blog...

AP: There are approximately one bazillion websites on personal finance. While you have some solid content, what do you think really makes your site unique? And how does that help you connect with the right readers?

WK: One bazillion, seriously? :) I guess I have my work cut out for me. But in all honesty, I think I have a pretty unique site. With every post and every topic that I tackle, I try to drive at a whole new perspective, a way of considering something that no one’s done before. I also love and encourage debate – it opens up so many new avenues that I hadn’t considered.

My readers tend to be people who want to think critically about their finances, rather than just hearing the basics repeated again and again. They love being challenged, and challenging me right back on things I have to say.

AP: And you must be doing something right because you’ve written for the Untemplater project. Tell me what makes Untemplater so cool and how you got involved with it.

WK: Untemplater has definitely been a lot of fun. In a nutshell, it’s a site geared toward Generation Y with an emphasis on breaking away from “the mold,” or accepted ways of doing things. Every generation tries to re-invent the trends of the generation before it, and we’re obviously no exception.

I got involved with Untemplater through Baker from Man vs. Debt, who is a fan of my writing (as I am of his, of course). Four posts in, I can definitely say that Untemplater has challenged me to be even more critical of my understanding of personal finance and the assumptions we take for granted.

AP: Why do you think people complicate money with explanations no one listens to?

WK: Wow, that is a tough one. I think most people who have been writing about money for some time see personal finance as a set of basic principles, with everything else being “just details.” The “problem” is that the end user, our reader, sees the details most of the time in our posts, and loses sight of the core principles that we base our discussions on.

I don’t think it’s an issue of complexity, so much as one of context. As we write about money, we should always be mindful of how what we’re talking about ties back to the basics. If we only have a view of the leaves, it can seem like a never-ending web of green, but as soon as we understand the structure of the tree (the roots, the branches), everything makes more sense.

AP: Thanks for doing this. I hope you have fun answering the questions.

WK: Thanks so much for the opportunity to be interviewed!


Last week, I sat down with Joel Ohman, a Certified Financial Planner® who decided to start a credit card-matching company online. Check it out.