by Hope
I have struggled with my relationship with money my entire life. It began as ignorance…seriously, I graduated from college, move to a big city (Chicago) and even bought a couple of cars and had absolutely no idea how money works. No clue that credits scores existed, never heard of debt to income ratio and the list goes on and on. I was wholly unprepared to be a financially responsible adult. Wholly!
I have written about that before, how I believe our schools should have a required curriculum on basic personal finance concepts. But I digress.
Even 6 years ago, I was struggling, not only with my terrible decision making, but also just know what financial concepts were and how they worked together.
I found myself reverting to “old” thinking the other day. And I quickly squashed it.
Many BAD readers will remember that my budgeting process was kind of backwards. I would compile all my line items. And the plan to make the amount of money I needed to meet all my needs and wants. Yes, I know stupid.
The last two years with a healthy regular income, really helped me turn the corner. I knew how much I was going to bring in and I knew the cadence. But I’m back to contracting…and while I do have regular pay and a regular pay schedule. I find my mind returning to “the old ways” – planning a budget outside of my means.
As of this week, I am in negotiations to turn my contract work into a full time job. I have asked for a bit more money than I am making now. So we shall see how it goes. I haven’t decided if I will remain here if they won’t budge on salary. But we will see. Wish me luck!
Hope is a creative, solutions-focused business manager helping clients grow their business and work more efficiently by leveraging expertise in project management, digital marketing, & tech solutions. She’s recently become an empty nester as her 5 foster/adoptive kids have spread their wings. She lives with her 5 dogs in a small town in NE Georgia and prefers the mountains to the beaches any day. She struggles with the travel bug and is doing her best to help each of her kids as their finish schooling and become independent (but it’s hard!) She has run her own consulting company for almost twenty years! Hope began sharing her journey with the BAD community in the Spring of 2015 and feels like she has finally in a place to really focus on making wise financial decisions.
So, what do you think ?