People always ask me “Can you help me manage my finances? I hear you are really good at it.” However, before I tell you how to manage your money I think it is important that you know why I am good at it.
Growing up, I lived in a one income household. My dad was out of work at times and we didn’t have much money growing up. We never had the best stuff, but we always had what we needed. I attribute a lot of my budgeting skills to my parents. They always lived frugally and although sometimes I hated it, I now realize that they did me a huge favor by raising me the way they did.
The lack of “things” in my life made what was really important shine through and put in solid roots: God, family, and love. People are what matter, not things in the end. Do I sometimes find myself going to other people’s houses and saying to myself “I wish I had that” “that is so awesome” “that would be really nice to have” and go home wishing I had more, absolutely! I am HUMAN after all! For some people they have to “keep up with the Jones’” but for others we prefer to live frugally and avoid debt.
I have a Bachelor of Arts in Economics and a Master of Arts in Financial Economics from the University of Detroit Mercy. Though I feel my real experience didn’t come from the classroom, it came from personal experience. UDM is an EXPENSIVE school, it is private and a great education, but everything comes with a price tag! I received an initial scholarship, called them and asked for more money. It worked, I got more money, but it still wasn’t near a full ride. My parents’ gave me a stipend each year, but there were still thousands of dollars left on my shoulders.
Before college my parents were very concerned about my finances, I was always the kid who would say “Okay I need $200 to go to camp.” I would do everything I could to get that $200, and then it was back to easy street! I didn’t care if I had money, the next time I needed it I would do the same thing, earn the money, and then go back to doing nothing.
When I look back, even at a young age I was pretty smart about my money. My parents would sometimes offer us incentives to save some money for college by matching whatever we put in the bank. Well when that offer came around I would work, work, work and put all I could earn in that amount of time in my bank account, but that was pretty much THE ONLY TIME I ever put money in my account!
Anyways, going into college I had enough money to cover my first semester. I started working at about age 16 and whenever I got paid, I went shopping, what 16 year old doesn’t (other than my very responsible sister…). The day I walked into college I had a work-study job; I took that job and ran with it! I signed up for the pep band, which paid scholarship money, and I continued working my lifeguarding job on occasion. I probably worked close to 30 per week and started saving money like crazy. My parents helped me research new scholarship opportunities; I would look for every opportunity to get a few extra bucks!
My graduation, Birthday and Christmas money started making it to my bank account. I was on a role! I got a great summer job on Mackinac Island and sacked away enough to pay for every semester. In November of my junior year I really wanted to buy a car. Well that wasn’t in the budget; I couldn’t have a car and afford to live on campus, so I decided to move home and commute to stay out of debt. Life is full of these tough decisions, but in the long run they are worth it. I graduated undergrad with over $7,000 in my bank account.
A year later I married into debt. My wonderful husband had some undergrad debt, and then he went to Law School. We got married his second year of Law School, paid for our own 300 person wedding and then I saw the bills. Never being in debt before I suddenly became very stressed, to the point I thought I was coming down with a terrible disease and I would be dead in the next five years. Yes people, money can do that to you! Sometimes it is a matter of admitting something to yourself, and once you do, you can attack it head on.
As you can see, one of the stressors causing me to spiral into a deep depression was my financial situation. My husband and I would find ourselves constantly fighting about money, but never getting anywhere. I then started tracking where our money was going. When we got married I made an awesome wedding budget in Excel and I made the whole thing into a game of how cheap I could get what I wanted. We price shopped for EVERYTHING. We told some people our wedding budget and they said it could absolutely not be done for that, well I beat our budget by a whopping $7,000! I won my own game! People laugh at me all the time, but that is exactly the mentality I reverted back to when I started budgeting our everyday expenses. So far I am winning again and will share just how I do it with you!
God blessed me with a special gift and I would be wrong to keep it all to myself, so He has put this blog on my heart to help you in this time of need. I would be happy to take suggestions and questions, and answer them in weekly topics for you. I will share some budgeting basics then move onto other things like retirement, savings accounts, investments, and seasonal tips! If you know someone who could benefit from this blog please forward the link! In some way shape or form everyone needs some money help. I will not promise that you will like all I have to say, some decisions are difficult and come with significant sacrifice, but in the end your hard work will pay off and you will be happy with your reward.
