Recently I was talking to a colleague in her 20s and we started to talk about interests. I started to bring up my interests in financial independence, investing, and going on my podcast and audiobook binges related to those subjects. Throughout this conversation I realized that her financial mentality is exactly the same as it was for me when I was in my 20s. The biggest differences are she did not have the massive amount…
I have made some of the worst money mistakes any person can make. It took me at least 10 years to recover from these money mistakes in my 20s and I have been paying for these mistakes to this day. What are your worst financial mistakes and how have you or are you recovering? Here are my 5 worst financial mistakes Student loans and credit cards I funded my entire out of state college education…
Ever since I set my student loan debt payoff goal of March 2019, I have been motivated more than ever to continue seeing my student loan debt shrink and eventually paid off. I have been paying a bit more on top of the $2,300 a month I currently pay thanks to my side hustles. Although my payoff month goal is March 2019, I am aggressively pursuing a payoff goal by the end of February 2019….
I was on a pretty good roll with putting posts up on this blog since starting this in May. Real life happens and the past 30 days has been hectic. It all started with business travel in October and then my favorite baseball team made the World Series in back to back years so I made a trip for the weekend. Probably a money moron moment, but I am a big Dodgers fan. I get…
I genuinely believe that if you are just starting to plan for your future whether that is early retirement or financial independence or developing a plan to get out of debt, then you need to start budgeting. I spend a minimal amount of time a month budgeting and it has helped me to know where my money was going. I noticed a pattern of spending behaviors that became acceptable to me. Here are 5 actions…
I started this blog as a personal journal because I went through some of the dumbest financial mistakes possible most notably defaulting on my $77,000 student loan debt. Along the way my hope is that this blog will allow me to learn from others, share knowledge, encourage others, and hold myself accountable. I enjoy my full time job and have no plans to leave. I make a good annual salary, I enjoy my team and…
For this week I rounded up the following blog posts that I enjoyed reading. OMG My Money’s favorite personal finance posts of the week (My first contribution! Thanks Michelle and Howard for letting me be part of this!) Which is better for getting out of debt, experience or knowledge by Debt.com – click here My take – you can check out my response here or check it out in full below. I basically said knowledge first, take…
As I started to spend a couple minutes every month budgeting, I noticed a pattern of spending behaviors that became acceptable to me. I have also witnessed my dad going above and beyond to save a few pennies or a few bucks. I never asked if this was a thrill or some sort of satisfaction by beating the game of what is the lowest price he can get. Here are 7 actions that can cost…
Earlier this year (May 2018), I had a personal finance epiphany. Out of nowhere I got this urge to get a hold of my finances and start aggressively paying off my $77,000 student loan debt and further educate myself on personal finance, financial independence, and investing. During this epiphany I decided to plan how I could aggressively tackle my enormous student loan debt. The baby step moment was to start budgeting. I needed to understand…
Through my buying and selling experience, I realized later on that I was naturally improving my negotiation and bargaining skills. My 8 best negotiating and bargaining tips Learn to actively listen – I have learned to ask questions and then stop talking to let the other person talk. For example, it can get very silent and awkward when I am going through someone’s sports cards collection and I am trying to calculate the collection’s value,…
For this week I rounded up the following blog posts that I enjoyed reading. OMG My Money’s favorite personal finance posts of the week How to automate your money by Let’s Automate Your Money – click here My take – I am a big believer in automating your money. It is one or 10 less things to worry about. Why spend those brain cells remembering to pay yourself first or pay those bills when you can…
Back in July (2018), I wrote a post about getting motivated to pay off my student loan debt. In that post I did not set a specific date and simply noted that I wanted to pay a little extra per month. I had a great start last month in August paying an extra $9,600 towards my student loan debt. That is on top of the $2,000 monthly payment, which makes the total amount $11,600 in…
I read or listened to an audiobook or podcast several months ago about selecting the right role models according to Bill Gates and Warren Buffet. I took notes on my phone so these might be a bit rough. Here are the 3 points to selecting the right role models Make sure your role model shares or has better core values than yourself “It’s better to hang out with people better than you. Pick out associates…
I have always worked out at home despite some of the companies I worked for either subsidized or basically paid for a gym membership. Perhaps it is the introvert in me, but I find comfort working out alone. I also get to multi task and work on other things during my rest period. (Honestly though I would not recommend this because you will get distracted and the workouts end up going from 45 min to…
I enjoy my share of stand up comedy performances. One of my favorites has been the earlier Kevin Hart stand up called “Laugh at My Pain”. He has a bit (check out the clip below) about staying in your financial lane. I call this one of the best pieces of financial advice. It has to do with both keeping up with the Joneses and lifestyle creep or lifestyle inflation. I was pulled out of my…
Last month (August 2018) I posted 15 total blog posts, slightly lower than the 21 blog posts in July 2018. With so many posts, I thought I would start a monthly post recap to share the most viewed. I do not think I can do a weekly recap so baby steps for now. Most viewed August 2018 posts The lamest excuses I made for not saving money – I share the 9 dumb excuses I…
Summer is wrapping up and kids are either back in school or getting ready to go back to school. Randomly I thought it would be fun to share what an over thinker goes through when planning for a vacation. What areas do you over think or over research whether personally or professionally? Do you think this has held you back in some way? One personal example of over thinking is vacation planning. I think I…
I believe that you are more likely to achieve your goals (finance, career, personal) when you write them down. Well, I should say that I started believing writing down goals because I started this personal finance journey blog. This post is inspired by a blog post I came across at Making Sense of Cents. The questions to ask yourself is from MindTools. My full time job is in digital marketing for a multi billion dollar…
I have to admit, the older I get the less I want to think about long term plans. Similar to how I have been thinking about how the next Olympics is X years away and how old I will be. I am getting closer to the big 4-0, which is crazy to think about. Back in high school I used to think 30 was old. Well I am in my mid-30s now and it does…
I am sure you have seen the articles about how the average college graduate has a 5 figure student loan debt amount. Here is an article from CNBC for a refresher. I ended up owing a 6 figure student loan debt upon graduation and defaulted. Fast forward more than 10 years and I still owed the US Department of Education nearly $77,000 total. The minimum monthly payment on my student loan debt is $826.24. For…
