From real estate agents to car salesman to freelance artists, many jobs produce irregular income. How do you budget when you have no idea how much you’ll be taking home?* Are you currently working a job in which no two paychecks are the same? Maybe you’re commission only and always living in the stress of waiting on the next deal …
Five Money Mistakes I’ve Made
Part of why I became a financial coach was to help others avoid the many money mistakes I made through the years. There were many more than five, but here are the 5 WORST money mistakes I’ve made (in no particular order): 1. Early withdrawal from a retirement fund AND a pension fund. At one point in our life, we …
The 1-2-3 Challenge: July 2021
July in Texas. “Mid” summer. The kids are home. Cookouts. Swimming. Vacation. Staycation. Still a few months before the holidays. And it’s hot, y’all. As we’re sweating away the pounds, now can also be a good time to trim excess spending from the budget. So we’re starting a challenge. Here are the rules: Challenge 1: During one week in July, …
Seven (7) Side Hustles I’ve Had
I just called them jobs. But at a time when I wanted to stay home with my children instead of working full time, side hustles became essential for survival. Maybe these will give you some ideas for some of your own! 1. Waiting Tables Who didn’t wait tables in college, right? Here I learned how to do multiple things at …
Are you financially proactive?
Steven Covey, in his best seller 7 Habits of Highly Effective People writes that the in order to be effective, you must “Be Proactive.” Don’t blame others for your behavior. Instead, focus your time and energy on things you can control. PREPARE(proactive) VS RESPOND(reactive) In counseling, the proactive coping approach denotes behaviors in which one will prepare for an event …
Establishing An Annual Expense Fund
Debt is a shackle that prevents its prisoners from moving forward in many areas of life. We’ve seen debt be a barrier to accepting a dream job, to making a future move, to buying a home, and even to getting married. Part of what we do here in our practice is to help people separate themselves from debt. And part …
Fitness and Financial Discipline
Ever wondered why financial discipline is difficult? I mean, you KNOW you need to change. But….the problem is in the doing the change. Here’s why: Financial discipline: the pain of the staying the same > the pain of change I see this a lot in physically fit athletes. They’ve already passed the “perceived” pain threshold in their mind and have …
Five Financially Savvy Things to Do in Your 20’s
There have been many financially stupid things I did in my 20’s: emptied my retirement account, bought a heating alarm system on credit, bought furniture on credit (both entailed paying WAY TOO MUCH over time for those things). If I could go back in time and talk to my 20-something self, those are some of the things I’d tell me …