At the beginning of the Covid pandemic my husband, who is self-employed as a farmer, had to have emergency back surgery. He was unable to work for 12 weeks and I was furloughed (kind of like, laid off) from my Nursing job.
So, guess who got voted to help on the farm? ME! I had to plant our spring crops, by driving a REALLY BIG tractor and pulling a large planter behind it. I had never even driven a tractor before and now I had to plant our corn and soybeans. We were not able to afford to hire someone to do this for us because we had a mountain of debt and we were living paycheck-to-paycheck. I was scared out of my mind! Looking back it was good timing (Thank you God) for me to be off of work for a month, but I didn’t know what I was doing on the farm.
We were drowning in debt. We had a BIG camper loan, two vehicle loans, and a house payment, and our other monthly expenses were high. We were making our payments, but I did not feel secure in our financial situation. I was always wondering where our money was going. I felt like it just got up and disappeared.
Me next to the tractor I named, “Big Betty”.
I get paid every 2 weeks from my “9-5” nursing job. It was like I would get paid and a week later my money was gone. It disappeared, like the socks in the dryer. I didn’t know if someone was stealing my money (the banks and loan companies) or if my money was sprouting legs and running away. But either way, my money was gone before I wanted it to be.
I had a lot of time, 12+ hours a day, while planting our crops to reflect on why we were in this situation. I realized we were not managing our finances responsibly. So, I started listening to financial podcasts, including Dave Ramsey, Ramsey Solutions, Rachel Cruze, and Suze Orman, along with others. I was researching and reading financial books, and following financial groups on Facebook and Instagram and within a few weeks I was hooked. I wanted to learn as much as I could and I wanted to get rid of our debt as fast as possible.
My son, Colton holding up our debt payoff color tracker. For every $1,000 of debt we paid off, we got to color in a shape.
Within 2 years, we had paid off over $100,000 in debt. It was during the peak of the Covid pandemic, so I was able to pick up as many extra hours as an RN as I wanted. I worked a lot of overtime and I was able to pay off my SUV almost 4 years early. We went crazy and sold our gorgeous 1-year-old destination camper and with that money paid off the camper loan and our truck loan. We were then able to put a small amount of money into our emergency fund. I was finally able to breathe. It wasn’t easy to do, but the concept was simple. You can wander into debt, but you can’t wander out of it.
Our gorgeous 1-year-old camper that was like our “second home”
I was so relieved that a huge weight was lifted off my shoulders and I felt free. Of course, nothing is perfect and our numbers are still in the red in different categories on occasion. I am far from perfect in any area of my life, including finances. But, I am so thankful that we made the difficult decision to sell our “second” home (the camper) as that really propelled us forward with becoming debt-free, besides our house.
So, as we were on our financial journey, I realized pretty quickly that I loved budgeting. I loved looking at my finances, sometimes a little too often, like every single day. I wanted to talk about money and debt management, budgeting, and saving with everyone. But one thing I learned was, not everyone is comfortable talking about their finances. And this is really sad and a little scary as more and more Americans are finding themselves living paycheck to paycheck. I wanted to change that. I wanted to help everyone and anyone, but specifically women. I wanted to connect with them, support them and empower them to grab their pen and paper and start a budget. I want YOU to come up with a plan for your money. I want YOU to start a budget and I want YOU to win with your money. And I want to walk with you along this journey!
Me driving the tractor with my youngest taking a nap in my lap.
I found myself talking to friends, family, and acquaintances about money and strategies for managing their finances. I realized that THIS is what I want to do. I want to talk, coach, support, and empower YOU with your money. I want to walk on this journey with you. Money management is pretty simple, the equation is very simple, spend less than you earn, but it is not easy and it is difficult to do on your own.
Finances are 20% head knowledge and 80% behavior. Sometimes even when we know WHAT to do, we don’t do it. We make excuses and keep doing what we’ve always done. Change is needed, but change is hard.
So, I want to be that person to encourage you to make the change and to hold you accountable every step of the way. Not every story is black and white. We can’t pick one way to handle money and expect every single person to be able to walk that path. We are each unique and each of our lives is different. You need a custom financial path and you need support along the way.
I will support you, encourage you, empower you, and connect with you. I want to help teach you all about money, planning, budgeting, debt management, and savings. I want to help you see that we can come up with a plan that you can follow and I know you can do it.
It doesn’t matter if you are bringing in a low-income, middle-income, or high-income. Everyone needs a budget and everyone would benefit from a Money Coach. Luckily for you, you are reading this blog post, written by a Money Coach who would LOVE to follow you on your new journey.
If you don’t want a Money Coach that is okay. You will still find lots of good information and tips and tricks in my latest blog posts. Check back often as I will be continuing to add new goodies to this site. And as always, I would love for you to connect with me on social media or email.
