Financial Literacy

Lately, I have decided to start following more people on Instagram who talk about budgeting, personal finance, financial independence, wealth building, etc. The reason is simple, I am broke, but not for long. That is the key, I am intentional that this is only a phase. I have to admit I don’t have the best financial habits at the moment, but that doesn’t mean that I don’t have good ones.

I just paid for a pdf from someone and I messaged them and said their book was overpriced, simple, and easy to follow, but overpriced for the information inside of it. I sent a DM via Instagram, however, I may need to email them directly. A lot of the information I know, because of people in my own life who have taught me, and because I also worked at a bank so I know a little about money myself. Does that mean I haven’t made stupid decisions? Hell no. I have made two very stupid financial decisions in my mid-twenties to early thirties to escape credit card and student loan debt. I cashed out my HSA and I cashed out my 401K to be debt-free. I should have left the 401K alone and invested the HSA, sometimes I kick myself mentally for that slip-up.

So here I am trying to read more about finances, investing, side income hustles, and passive income. Many younger people are trying to diversify their income to get out of the 9 to 5 grind and hell I don’t want to be a part of it myself. There are a lot of passive income opportunities I have thought of that require some work, but for the longest time my brain just had no idea where to start. In the last few days that has changed. My rusty brain gears are slowly moving and thinking about ways to make money from my own creativity. Two options I am pretty sure I won’t pursue are monetizing the blog through affiliate advertising because I don’t post enough I think to actually make good revenue. The second is youtube. There are a lot of vloggers out there, lots in South Korea and Japan. China is a bit more limited and I think among those married to someone from Tibet, there might be none, not 100% sure. Although I think it would work and make income, my fear is where is the line in what is okay to show culturally and what is interpreted as trying to promote culture at the expense of the “unified model.”

Currently, I am reading “Rich Dad, Poor Dad”, by Robert Kiyosaki, and I am enjoying it so far. One thing I wish school had taught me was more about finances and how to balance a budget. Although I know how to and what to do, sometimes it is frustrating to be on a budget when all you want to do is go out and enjoy life. But enjoyment means financial stress later, so for a month or two I just need to buckle down and stay on the budget to identify my bad spending habits and where I can improve.

One thing I would like to do by the end of this year is begin investing in my future, through bonds, stocks, 401K, or something. The ball should probably start somewhere so that it can grow and do its own thing and I just forget about it while I continue working and building a savings here. These past 15 months have been a financial hurdle for many reasons, going on maternity leave a month early, losing our entire savings to my hospital stay and Soby’s NICU stay. Living on very little for 5 months and then when we had a little money we needed to help a sick family member who is much healthier now. Which I would help them all over again to ensure their health, because that is what family does.

We are hopefully finally in the clearing financial to build a savings, but realistically I don’t think it will really get going until October or November. With this in mind it is really important to ask the important questions:

What do I want in life? What am I saving money for? What are my vices? What are my husband’s vices? Why aren’t I sticking to the budget? How can I make a more effective budget? What amount of each paycheck should we be putting away and still able to have wiggle room to keep afloat? What do I want to learn about finances and wealth building? How can I become location independent (that would be a dream for me)? How can I monetize my own creativity?

Finances are important and although I am late to the game, I am debt free. I can build a savings, I can build wealth. I just have to switch my passive mindset to an active one, while being more transparent on where I have succeeded and where I am failing with spending. Going forward, I hope that in a month or two that I will have made some good progress to report. The first report I want to make is that my bad habit of emotional or stress eating is in check, because it wrecks havoc on my budget, my savings, my waistline, and my health. That is one habit that can change a lot of things in my life both in terms of finances and my health. Let’s get financially literate together! Who do you like to follow for financial literacy? Let me know in the comments.