If you know me, you know I’ve been self-employed for about a year and a half. As a new entrepreneur, I am enjoying the flexibility of my schedule the most. But I came to a shocking realization shortly after turning in my two week notice. The “Yay-I-Have-No-Boss” side of me forgot to share with the “Alone-With-A-Book-On-A-Friday-Night-Don’t-Call-Me” side some crucial information: […]
This week marks the one-year anniversary of being 100% self-employed! I say 100% because I’ve always had some form of side income in addition to my regular job. It’s been so bad, my friends gave me the nickname “Everyday I’m Hustling”. Quitting my full-time job in June 2014 may have seemed scary and insane to your average American. After all, why would anyone give up guaranteed income? Well, because it’s NOT guaranteed income. The job served its purpose, but I knew it’s not where I wanted to be eventually. I knew the freedom and flexibility of working for myself was something I had always wanted, and something my dad talked about for many years. Being an accountant and a to-do list-aholic (my own word), I’ve been called a “cold, calculating machine” and this time, it worked for me. I worked out the numbers to the penny, hired a personal financial planner, and started saving money when I moved to Houston in 2011. […]
Continuing with the discussion of lessons my dad taught me, here are a few more nuggets of advice he gave: Always save for what you need and be willing to sacrifice. One thing he was good at was saving a whole lot of money in a short space of time. Before I even heard of Dave Ramsey, dad was making the “beans-and-rice money diet” a popular thing. Whether we were planning a move from one state to another, or getting gifts for the younger kids for Christmas, there was always a way to make purchases without going into debt. I don’t think we ever used layaway, now that I think about it. Everything was cash, cash, cash. Basically, the envelope system was in effect, just without the envelopes. […]
Today would be my dad’s 65th birthday. It’s been about 3 1/2 years since Pastor Jones has “graduated”, as my pastor calls the state of “absent from the body, present with the Lord” and things have definitely changed, some for good and some not-so-good. His passing has had mixed effects on the young family, some more motivated to do great things and make him proud and others…not so much. Loss affects people in various ways, I suppose. Pastor Jones was a spiritual father, pastor and teacher to many young men whom society counted out as lost causes. He was an evangelist, a theologian, a vet, a motivator, a bibliophile, a joker, a trash-talking chess player, and a man of wisdom. He was always ready with some scripture, advice or challenge to help you become a better you. Those who knew him knew his motivation was to see you succeed and have all the things he didn’t have growing up. So in honor of his birthday, this week I’m sharing several financial lessons daddy taught me. There are important takeaways for everyone no matter where you are in life. […]
A month ago, I had the opportunity to attend The Financial Bloggers Conference, affectionately know as FinCon. As a single person getting her finances in order, I can wholeheartedly say that I am NOT doing this alone. I’ve got an army of great financial bloggers and podcasters that I subscribe to and they been a huge help to me in my journey to get debt-free. I met the majority of this “army” at FinCon, the Financial Bloggers Conference organized by Phillip Taylor (find out more about Phillip and his blog, PTMoney, here). […]