I don’t know who in the heck gave us the idea that we were supposed to magically know everything the moment we become: an adult, graduated college, became a parent, got our first job, became [fill in the blank]. Whoever gave us this idea deserves more wet noodle lashings than I care to be able to count! It’s bologna, I tell you!! Pure bologna!!
Since when do we expect a kid to go to school knowing how to read and write on day one? Or a piano student to play Mozart in his third lesson? In the same way, whether we’re 16 or 60, how can you be expected to know how to manage your money and know all of the nuances there is to know about money if you’ve never had to know the nuances of money or gotten by doing things the way you have in the past?
I remember when I was 23 and looking to buy my first house with my then-husband. It was definitely a starter home, one that wouldn’t cost much more than our second-floor 100 year old apartment. I had no idea what a mortgage was, what PMI was, what escrow was, what arrears meant, or what any of the numbers meant when it came to my credit score. I was LOST!!! All I knew is that I wanted to get a house and get out of my smoky apartment, so I learned. And by “learned” I mean that the banker that was all too happy to fill out our information and take her commission check gave us a 5 minute tutorial and we happily and a bit naively signed on the dotted line. We knew the bare bones but enough to know what the definitions of the words meant and that we were going to get little slips to fill out and send in with our monthly payments. We knew what we felt we needed to know.
Over the years (and with more experience), I learned the nuances. Sometimes I learned through something I read. Sometimes I learned because I messed up and did something that caused me to lose money or bruised my pride. But I learned! I couldn’t have become a real estate agent or a banker with my limited knowledge, but I could be an informed home owner.
In the same way, you could have been sending in payment on your bills for the majority of your life but still not know anything about budgeting or saving or being frugal or a good steward of your money. After all, getting a paycheck automatically deposited in your bank doesn’t instantly make you an account manager. This is about where I found myself a few years ago. Going through a divorce was a rude awakening. I was aware of what I spent my money on but my money spent itself more than I had the control spending it. My only real advantage was that I had overseen the bills for 20 years and was a frugal spender. I knew the passwords to the accounts and how to make a mean shit on a shingle (look it up lol!) and other frugal meals. But where my advantages ended is where the growing pains started. Growing pains that helped push me to create this blog, start saving for my retirement, start a budget, and get an emergency fund started! (Do you see how I used the word “start” a lot there? I’m a work in progress, too!)
I’ve been stretched and grown so much over these few years, and I’m so excited to share with you some of it! If you’ve come here to figure out how to invest in bit coin or buy your first investment property, I’m definitely not your girl. But if you’re looking for practical and sometimes outside-of-the-box solutions to your money woes, I’m your girl! Wherever you are today, whether that’s deep in debt, trying to pay your monthly bills but barely scraping by, or just wanting to figure out how to spend your money more wisely so you can have a bit of a security blanket, you’ve come to the right place. Have a seat and buckle up… it’s going to be a rewarding ride!