Sober Women Managing Money & Mental Wealth
In continuation of my interview series, “people are basically...”, I am excited to introduce you to Tim and L.
They are a young couple with a very bright future and an already impressive net worth. However, that has not come by happenstance as they make very intentional choices in their lives.
Without further ado, here is Tim & L from Life for the Better…
Preventative care is a big thing in healthcare right now. As a matter of fact, all Affordable Care Act-compliant plans include preventative care at a zero dollar cost to members.
Who wouldn’t rather prevent a condition versus treating it? Some things are preventable with good habits and early detection.
Unfortunately, there is also rotten luck and genetics; although, that doesn’t negate the importance of preventative care. 😉
I propose that as we do preventative care for our physical and mental health, we can also do it for our financial health.
If there is a financial problem like debt or not enough money at the end of the month, we need to treat the problem. I’ve written several prescriptive articles pertaining to such things:
However, once you’ve treated the problem and cleaned up your debt, you now get to focus on the prevention of these things occurring again. And I would argue that prevention is a bit more fun! 😉
There are many ways to pay off debt, but most notably are two very popular methods:
Both have their strengths. Neither is bad. I still say that the best method is the method that you are going to stick to!
This purpose of this article is to show how you can combine both the debt snowball and the debt avalanche into a hybrid method.
I couldn’t think of a catchy name. The Debt Snowlanch or the Debt Avalball just don’t roll off the tongue.
I personally followed the debt snowball method when paying off my debt. I was desperate to get financial peace and when I was steered towards Dave Ramsey back in 2014, I grabbed hold of it. It certainly worked as I made my final debt payment on December 29, 2017, and became debt-free for the first time in 23 years!
However, I learned about the debt avalanche method after getting out of debt and was intrigued.
Let me briefly explain the tenants of each method and then review the pros and cons of both before we talk about combining the two.
Ms. Fiology was born one year ago at CampFI Mid-Atlantic 2018 on the weekend of April 13th – April 16th. I owe a big thanks to Jonathan for introducing me to Kevin Clack and to Kevin Clack for pushing my blog past the goal line.
My first post went live on April 19th, 2018. Okay, okay so I’m releasing this post one day early so technically you can wish me a happy 364 days of blogging. 😉
However, I did start blogging for ChooseFI in January of 2018 so if we want to get technical I’m at a year plus.
I think the first thing I’ve learned is that this is work. For me, it’s enjoyable work but none-the-less it’s work.
From day one, I’ve decided that I wanted to treat this as a job. This has helped me with my goal setting and being disciplined. Initially, I committed to posting every Monday.
Once I was comfortable writing posts once a week, I upped it to twice a week. Now I post on Mondays and Thursdays.
I’ve heard over and over from veteran bloggers that if you want to grow your readership, consistency is key. This way your readers know what to expect from you.
Some lessons we learn early in life and they can carry us far. I feel like most people should have learned the value of being prepared by high school. Not this gal!! I was too busy partying and having fun so unfortunately, my studies often were on the back burner.
Actually, I did prepare for one set of classes. And those were in mathematics because I enjoyed doing math problems. Obviously, I recognized that if I did my homework, I did well in class. I saw the correlation but I just wasn’t motivated to study for the other subjects.
In college, I started to appreciate all that the world had to offer in terms of education. I found a love for reading and additionally doing more math problems.
Furthermore, I found the value in taking the time to be prepared but occasionally we need to be reminded of the basics…
Imagine this, it’s 9:00 PM on a Sunday night and I’ve committed to releasing a post every Monday. Furthermore, my email service is scheduled to send out my newest post by 7:00 AM so it needs to be live on the blog by 6:59 AM in order to be emailed.
I’ve gained a little following so I don’t want to let anyone down. Additionally, I like to produce quality content, so I don’t want to disappoint.
Formulating my thoughts into a cohesive article with clear takeaways takes time. Let’s get to writing.
Okay, I think I have something good going.
Oh, crap now it’s midnight and it’s still not done. Maybe if I go to sleep now, I can get up at 4:00 AM and put on the finishing touches.
What the heck?? How am I supposed to operate on 4 hours of sleep?? Snooze for another 20 minutes. Rise. Make coffee. Sit down & drink it. Oh crap, now it’s 5:00 AM and I only have two hours to finish and edit my post before I must get ready for work.
Write. Re-write. Edit. Oh shoot, I have to add images because everyone likes a picture, right? Right. Find some pics.
Add words to the photos on Canva. Who said I have to add words to my photos anyway?? Oh yeah, if I’m going to promote on Instagram I need a square photo…with words. And if I’m going to pin it on Pinterest, I need verticle photo….with words. Stupid words! Who invented words anyway??
And my theme on my blog looks best with a banner style photo.
Okay, screw it I’m not putting words on my theme photo. They’ll see the title.
Oh no, it’s 6:45!! Okay, hurry up and edit the piece, dang it. Now check all the links. Good, good everything looks kosher.
Okay, okay, I”m ready to hit publish.
Seriously, I’m gonna do it but one more glance. Oh crap, it’s 6:58, I cannot glance over it again.
Okay, I’ll hit publish and then I’ll review it again, I can always edit it after it goes live. Right? Right.
Alright, it’s live!
Dang it, I spelled “affect” wrong – effect is the noun and affect is the verb, girl, don’t forget it!! Okay, edit, publish again.
Now before I get ready for work, let me tweet it out. Okay, done. Awe but some of my friends are making funny tweets. I gotta comment on a few…20 minutes later.
Now let me get this thing up on insta. Okay, what cool hashtags can I insert?? How about – #FinancialIndependence #DoHardThings #Sober and #MsFiology? Perfect!
Okay, now let me pin it to Pinterest and write a little blurb. Good, good only one more platform to go…Facebook. Ugh, if I go on FB, I’m going to see notifications and get distracted. Stay focused, girl, stay focused, you got less than 30 minutes to shower and get ready for work.
Arrive at work exasperated.
Okay, let’s try this again…
I walk into my apartment on Sunday around 9 PM after a lovely dinner with the family. I turn on my laptop and review my articles for the week one more time.
Perhaps I make a few edits. I check to ensure all of the links work. Yep, great.
I crawl into bed with my book. After reading a chapter or two, I give in to sleep for a glorious 7-8 hours.
This time when my alarm goes off, I don’t want to throw it.
I get up and turn the hot water on so I can make my french press coffee. Next, I curl up on my favorite couch with my favorite electric blanket and read my bible. I pray.
The coffee is delicious and I have extra time so I read another chapter in my book.
Now, I promote my freshly published article on Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, and Facebook. I say hi to a few friends virtually, make some comments on posts. I even read a personal finance article or two that catch my fancy. Additionally, I promote those on twitter.
I hop in the shower, get myself ready, and I’m out the door to walk to work a little bit early. Life is good.
Which would you choose? Yeah, me too. I’ll take the latter one every time, but know that it does come at a cost. The cost is to take the time to prepare, block off time, sacrifice, and be disciplined.
Truth be told, I’ve experienced it both ways and my strong dislike for scene 1 is what inspires me to remain disciplined and re-create scene 2 over and over. Sometimes, it means I have to say no to social functions so I can achieve my goals.
However, it’s also about balance as you can see my Sunday night was spent having a leisure dinner with my loved ones.
Okay, are you ready to give it a try? It doesn’t have to be starting a blog, but what is the next thing you’re dreaming of doing? Are you ready to take the leap? Whatever it is, may you remember this tale of preparedness or a lack thereof and chose to prepare wisely…
