The Epic Money Lesson I Learned
There are some money lessons that I am grateful for and others I will never forget.
I will never forget the first time I spent a night out on the town with my rent money, or the time I flew down to South Beach, Miami for Memorial Day weekend with $200 to my name only to return home and see my checking account over drawn. Almost all of the lessons I learned were hard or life altering. Little did I know they gave me the experience that would end up shaping me in the future.
One of the biggest money lessons learned was actually refreshing and left a positive feeling in my mind. It helped shape the woman that I am now. It is an evening I will never forget. I was around 33 years old, and sitting in the bed with my then boyfriend. He logged into his credit karma account and shared his credit score with a smile. Moments later he was opening a file with bills and calling each one individually to make his monthly payment. He began talking to me about his financial goals and the steps he was taking to reach them.
That day I fell in love. I fell in love with my own personal financial goals. Before that moment I had never witnessed anyone that responsible. I realized I had no one in my life to pave that adult road for me. I had spent all of my adult life just getting by. I wasn’t responsible with my money, my spending habits, paying bills, or thinking about future goals. I paid my bills when I felt like it, I never saved a dime, and I could careless about all of my debt and credit scores. That’s when I learned how important being responsible for my money was.
THE PROCESS
I was so excited after that night I began my financial journey the very next morning. I sat down and faced the music on all of my bad money decisions and how they had drastically impacted my life. The first priority was pulling and reviewing my credit reports. I was embarrassed at the mess I created over the years. I made a personal commitment to increase my credit scores, clean up my credit reports by disputing Items that I deemed erroneous, and paying back my debts. Simultaneously, I began monitoring and reducing my spending. I started budgeting and planning for the next 3-5 years of my life. Within a year of that time I had increased my credit score from the low 600’s to 780. Over the last few years I continued to make some great progress. A few times I caught myself slipping back into old habits and picking up some new ones. I even intentionally reduced my income in an effort to become happier. However, I started educating myself on money and shifted my money mindset completely.
Financial literacy is a learning process and over time I learned new habits that would drastically change my financial outlook. As with everything, my goals changed over the years and so did my systems with money. Often I wish I was educated in finances earlier in life, and coached into being responsible with money. I have taken the pleasure in sharing my journey with those around me. Some of my most enjoyable moments were organizing a small group of like minded individuals. People who wanted to get a major grip on their money and start planning for bigger and better things. We would meet bi-weekly and discuss our finances and educate ourselves on ways to reduce spending, saving techniques, and how to reach our goals. We became Dave Ramsey enthusiasts in no time.
As of today, that group has transitioned into a community and I am supporting individuals on this journey through “Dough Dreamers”. Our goal is to strengthen our values surrounding money and deepen our outlook on personal finance. Our mission is to provide support and encouragement to each other and share ideas and struggles with others on their debt free journey. In the future I anticipate expanding to provide coaching services to people like you and me.
For more information on Dough Dreamers feel free to shoot me an email on my contact me page or visit our Instagram page.
IT’S BETTER TO HAVE IT AND NOT NEED IT, THAN TO NEED IT AND NOT HAVE IT”
- SG