Money is overwhelming to many people but you don't have to figure it out alone.
I'm an almost 39 year old woman. I define myself as a person of faith, wife, mother, friend and #girlboss. I'm a work-hard, play-hard kind of gal. After 16 years in the pension business, I was let go in January 2021, and have been working as a contractor since.
Through this pandemic, and after losing my job, I realized that the most important goal for me was to have more free time and flexibility for things my family and I want to do, while having financial security that wasn’t tied to being stuck in jobs that weren’t serving us well.
I never had any real savings and always thought about preparing myself to be creditworthy when making purchases. I wanted to change, but I needed help and I was ashamed to put it all out there to get the pro-advice I needed. I used to put every amount of excess funds towards historical debt, but that left me in what my coach called a "debt spiral".
Changing my mindset to save and pay debt allowed me to see the positive results of my hard work. Seeing the balances grow was positive reinforcement. As a result, my net worth has increased by over $30K over a 6 month period. I'm now saving for my future fun purchases and trips vs. thinking about which credit card I should put them on.
I can find ways to do work I enjoy AND improve my family's finances and live more freely.
Now I'm working 30 hours a week while improving my family’s financial position. And I still have funds to spend on fun things and vacation without feeling deprived. I have the confidence now that my income is, in fact, replaceable and I can walk away from the circumstances in life that no longer serve me.
Other than my faith, this has been the 2nd most freeing thing in my life. I finally broke all the fear shackles holding me back. I used to feel scared about money. Now I feel in control.
