I started my career in 1999 in the finance industry in Denver. As a young man in the early part of the 2000s, I would proudly tell everyone in the older generation how easy their lives were because it was sooooo much easier (it least in my mind) for them to buy a house and start a family than it was going to be for me.

This fall, we took my oldest son to college and dropped him off. As I’ve told everyone who asks, it was the hardest thing that I’ve ever had to do as a parent. He may be 18 years old, but leaving him somewhere to fend for himself feels…unnatural. On the outside, I told people how excited I was for him to be starting this new adventure in his life…