Not that one (well at least not on my blogs), I'm talking finances. One thing I find myself doing lately is giving financial advice, mainly to family members. Let me preface by saying I am not a financial adviser nor do I have a degree in financing. What I do have is 12 years experience of working as an accountant, owning two homes, zero credit card debit (not too much other debt either), an over 800 credit score, an actual savings that I only put money into, and life experiences from dealing with my own personal financial issues in the past. This is going to be one of my longer posts so if you don't have the time you might want to skip until you do.
I've stated this before but I grew up extremely poor and finances were not discussion growing up in my household. I was never really told about credit or about how to spend money the right way. I've always wondered if this is a race, culture, and/or a socioeconomic thing. Naturally I learned from observing the people around me. That taught me to buy what I wanted when I wanted whether a bill or two was due or not. I also learned if you didn't have cash there are always credit cards and you can get many of those. The result was me learning the hard way I wouldn't get anywhere in life with those bad decisions.
Eventually over the course of several years I turned all those bad habits around and freed myself from the wrong mind frame. It was actually quite simple too (not paying back all the debt I racked up on top of the student loans I had) once I changed my way of thinking.
Most people that come from a background like mines don't even realize you can make 30-35k a year (what I was making when I purchased my first home as a single female) and still be able to do & have many things, such as owning a home, drive a sports car, and travel (if that's what your goals are) all while having a savings. Obviously this is not possible for everyone. I understand that if you have a child(ren) or live in high cost of living area that's nearly impossible with that income bracket. I'm not talking to you, I'm talking about everyone else. Yes, even those with student loans. I did not graduate but I had 40k in student loan debt at one point. It's all about how you're spending your money. People don't realize after they've paid their bills they might have more disposable income than they think they do (I realize this is not the case for everyone but it is for many). How often do you eat out, get those nails done, shoe shop, clothes shop, and impulse buy? All those play a big part in your disposable cash being so low. If you happen to get an income tax check back every year what do you do with that? A lot of us have this I want it now and I can't wait mentality and that alone causes us to never climb out of financial debt.
One of my favorite posts floating around on tumblr is "People: If you're so poor and don't have money to pay your rent why did you go to dinner and the movies today? Me: Because my rent is $700 not $40 and what am I supposed to do never have any funny because I don't make a decent livable wage?" That's not verbatim because I can't find the meme right now, but you get the point. This statement is very true $40 isn't going to pay your $700 rent but with that type of thinking you'll never have the $700 to pay your rent. To break that down even further, did that person also have that way of thinking when they saw a new shirt they wanted? This $20 isn't going to pay my rent so let me get this shirt. Oh and I need these shoes to match with it this $100 isn't going to pay my rent either so let me get those too because I have to have it now. Those little impulse buys start to add up. No, $160 isn't going to pay your rent but now you have $160 less thank you started with and you still have $700 instead of $540 of rent due. Nobody says you have to be "poor" and miserable but there are things you can do with spending little to no money.
One of my new favorite quotes comes from Gia Casey, "There's nothing wrong with a little struggle...you live the lifestyle that you are able to at the time; and if you work hard and you aspire to have a different lifestyle at some point you'll be able to get it." Change your way of thinking/spending & you'll see a big change (I'll probably go into further detail in the future but I feel like this post has already become long enough).