Engineering Your Wealth System
Stop Patching Your Finances, Start Engineering Your Wealth
Living and building in New York City, juggling entrepreneurship, tech company investments, and keeping up with the accelerating world of technology has shown me something profound: our world is built on interconnected systems.
My early career was in finance, crafting models to understand how money and risk moved. But a crucial insight emerged, particularly as I saw the incredible creative force of technology: while finance often rearranges existing value, technology is a powerhouse for creating new value.
That simple realization changed everything. I knew I needed to be where genuine value is born.
Building on my financial modeling background, I dove into the skills that truly create value in today's tech-driven world: understanding how to design effective systems, how to integrate products into the market, how to use data to drive smart decisions, and how to leverage automation. I even founded McDonagh Family Office with this at its heart: not just to invest, but to actively help our portfolio companies grow by implementing these efficient technologies and data-smart strategies.
What truly clicked for me was that the same methodical, intelligent thinking used to design large-scale technology platforms or complex artificial intelligence can be incredibly effective for something that feels much more personal: building wealth. Building a great big financial wall around your family and then an army of resources for their benefit is the best way to take care of them across time, location and situation.
A Systems Approach to Prosperity
Too many of us approach our finances with a sense of stress or by cobbling together random bits of advice. I firmly believe there’s a better way. Instead of viewing your money as a jumble of accounts and bills, what if you treated it as a cohesive Wealth System? Something you thoughtfully design, build, monitor, and fine-tune, just like engineers create and manage critical technology.
This isn't just playing with words; it's a fundamental shift in perspective. It’s the reason I started writing this Substack. It’s the subject of my first book.
IF YOU KNOW LITERARY AGENTS IN NON-FICTION, LET ME KNOW PLEASE
Adopting a system design mindset brings the discipline and clarity of engineering to your personal financial success. It’s about moving from passively reacting to your money to actively architecting the financial future you desire.
Why Thinking Like a Systems Engineer Matters for Your Wealth
System design is the absolute bedrock of success in technology and most fields. I became obsessed with it early in my transition from finance to technology.
Before a single line of code is written for a new app or platform, engineers spend considerable time mapping out the entire architecture. They define all the components, how they’ll connect and communicate, how information will flow, what kind of usage to expect, and critical requirements like reliability and security.
Great system engineering creates surface area for magical experiences.
The goal is to build systems that are:
Scalable: Can they handle growth easily without falling apart?
Reliable: Do they work correctly and predictably, every time?
Available: Can you access them when you need them?
Performant: Do they operate quickly and efficiently?
Maintainable: Can they be easily updated, fixed, or improved?
Secure: Are they protected from threats and errors?
Cost-Effective: Do they deliver the best possible results for the resources used?
If I had to chose just three goals to aim for: reliable, performant, scalable.
You can use engineering to lower the cost, or wait for the tides of technological improvement to increase capability surface area and/or decrease cost. If the system doesn’t do what it is supposed to, reliably, in a way that we can build on top of… time for a new system.
Life comes down to trade-offs.
A huge part of this process is understanding and making smart trade-offs. You can't always have everything at maximum all at once. Do you need lightning speed, or is unwavering consistency more important? Is it better to cut costs, or build in extra backup systems? These are practical decisions engineers make based on what the system is ultimately trying to achieve.
My "aha!" moment was realizing that this exact framework can be applied to building personal wealth. It offers a structured, logical path to creating a robust, value-generating financial engine for your life. It’s about designing a system that works for you, day in and day out.
First we are going to discuss the core pieces of a wealth system, then we’ll overview the steps of building & integrating a high-performance wealth system.
The Key Parts of Your Wealth System
Let's look at your personal finances through this engineering lens, breaking it down into core components: