Start Here – Your Money Roadmap
I’m asked a lot in money coaching – where do I start? Of course, this question has a different answer depending on your answer to this question – where are you? I can’t tell you where to start if I have no idea where you are today! Are you drowning in credit card debt? Or…
Stop Treading Water and Swim
Do you ever hear about somebody doing something awesome, or even see a friend doing a new cool thing, and get a little jealous? But quickly your jealousy might turn into something else – a feeling of motivation. “If they can do it, I can do it!” You see someone lose a bunch of weight…
Stuff vs Freedom
Lately I’ve been observing a difference in our diverse circle of friends and acquaintances. Some of them talk about making payments, and some of them talk about making investments. Some talk about pay day, and some talk about dividends. Some want to go to the mall – others want to take a walk and chat…
Multi-Level Marketing Scams Prey on Women
It’s about time that I weigh in on all of the multi-level marketing schemes (scams) that have been blowing up my social media lately! I’ve been noticing quite a trend here as well – I keep hearing from friends and acquaintances about their exciting new business opportunity – and I, too, can earn thousands of…
What the heck is Stewardship?
Stewardship is a super old fashioned word, one I didn’t hear until I began attending a church in my 20s. Churches tend to speak in metaphors, and euphemisms, and old English. Like “the body of Christ” and “fishers of people”. Stewardship literally means taking care of something, but in church it means “thank you for…
My Credit Score is Terrible – And That’s Ok
So yesterday I was reading about the new “Ultra FICO” and just generally feeling negative about America’s financial industry. If you haven’t heard, now people with really low/ no credit can link all their financial accounts (checking, savings, etc) to try to boost their credit score and borrow money they wouldn’t otherwise be able to…
Excuses, Excuses – The Lies We Tell Ourselves
When I coach people about their money, I can tell pretty quickly if they are serious about making changes or not. The ones who are serious will listen to me. They will step back and really examine their habits. They are willing to make sacrifices. They say “Hmm… let me think about it. I guess…
What Have you Already Done?
I recently made a money mistake (more on that later). It wasn’t huge, but I allowed myself to wallow in self-pity and flagellation for a hot minute. Then I remembered some advice I had read recently that I hadn’t yet followed, and I decided now is the time. It was a “productivity hack” and entailed…
My Biggest Money Mistake
We bought a house in 2007. Yes we did. Right when the loans were easiest to get and the market was pretty much at its peak. Probably the worst time to buy a house, in the history of house buying. But what did we know – I was 23 years old! Spoiler alert – somehow…
FIRE is Crazy – and We’re Doing It Anyway
I started this blog to document our journey toward Financial Independence and Retiring Early (FIRE). I wanted to be able to look back and say, yeah, that’s how we did it, that’s how we felt, and it was totally worth it! I also wanted to have a place where I could point people (in real…