Finance Extraordinaire (in the making)!

08/30/2013

Hello Everyone,

If you have read all my blog postings then you are already aware that I'm planning on branching out this blog to cover all kinds of different subjects. I want to post anything that inspires me, or that I want to write about. This blog is my own and I don't want to feel restricted, so I'm not restricting myself!

I don't ever really remember sharing with any of my followers much about who I am. Since I plan on adding posts about Finance from here forward I wanted to share a little about me that relates to that subject.

I am currently a full time college student, and I also work part time. I am working on an Economics undergraduate degree, hence the title of this blog post. The key words you should be noting in the title of this blog post are: in the making. That being said I don't know EVERYTHING about finance or economics, but I'm learning. I will say I probably know more than the average person.

My goal is to make a successful career as a personal financial adviser; Ideally I would like to have my own business own day. This is a long term goal. One of my short term goals is to graduate college without any debt. So far I'm on my way to achieving my short term goal, at least for my associates degree! I am working on my sophomore year of college and so far I haven't taken out any student loans.

Growing up in a household where I was told we didn't have money I naturally worried about it. I knew money was essential. I mean think about it, what doesn't require money? There isn't a whole lot. What I never knew growing up is how much any of our bills were or how much money my parents made. Many of you are thinking, "well thats none of your business".... I disagree. If your telling your child that you don't have any money then I think its natural in today's world that that child will worry. I'm not saying you have to buy your child anything they want, I'm saying you either teach them about money and finances so when you say you don't have money they know its for that item due to priorities or you just tell them no!

Growing up in a household worrying about money definitely impacted me as an adult. My husband and I are very focused on achieving financial security. We aren't cheap, well I kind of am, but we still have fun and make purchases. We don't purchase a lot of big ticket items however. We both drive older paid off cars; his car was a gift from his parents when he got his license. I bought my car from my mom when my other one proved unreliable.

We have a household budget, and I'm proud of it. I know probably 60% or more households have no budget. I know, I know, budget is a dirty word. I generally call it a spending plan instead. It is simply how we chose to allocate our money, our priorities. We aren't always on the mark. Sometimes we over spend in certain categories and then we have to pull the money from somewhere else. The one thing we are diligent about is savings!

At the moment we have a take home pay of around $3,000. Despite looking around I'm having a hard time finding what the AVERAGE american take home pay is. I would guess ours is below average; however, we manage to save 1/3 of our income or $1,000 every month. I think it really is ALL about setting priorities!

I'm very much into thinking about the future and insuring that we are financially secure; I don't know a person who can honestly say they don't want financial security for themselves. I want to share what I've learned from school, life, and other sources.