FinanceRox Introduction post

Welcome to FinanceRox.com! I grew up in a small town in Montana in a family that has always struggled to make ends meet. I learned at a young age that life without money can be very stressful and not very fun. I grew up below the federal poverty level and was constantly worried about our family of 7 not being able to afford food and losing our house. However, I was lucky to have 2 loving, hardworking parents and a handful of awesome grandparents that helped us out financially. The silver-lining is that our money troubles gave me a powerful drive to seek and achieve financial stability which became my #1 life goal.

Financial stability means different things to different people. For some it might mean having a roof over your head while for others it might mean having enough money in the bank that you don’t have to work. Of course I didn’t call it “financial stability” when I was a kid, but I knew that I wanted to avoid financial stress. Since this goal is pretty vague, I’ve had to define it more over the years.

For me, financial stability means:

#1 Having stable, reliable income

#2 Having no debt (negative money is the only thing worse than no money)

#3 Being able to pay for unexpected expenses without melting into crisis mode

Financial stability has been and continues to be my top priority. Over the last few years I have been able to check off each of these goals:

#1 Stable income: I graduated in 2010 with a bachelors degree in accounting and got a great job as a Financial Analyst at a non-profit where I have worked for 7 years: Check mark

#2 No Debt: I paid off the end of my $25,000 of student loans in 2014 with a lump sum payment of $8,310 and my husband and I have been debt free ever since: Check mark

#3 Handle unexpected expenses: We have built up a decent emergency fund which allows us to pay surprise $2000 dental bills (I should floss more and go to the dentist more than once in every 7 years) without an argument titled “No, YOU ask YOUR parents for the money”: Check mark

#4 ~Bonus~ There has been one unplanned factor that has contributed greatly to our financially security in the last few years; we were able to buy our $211,000 home in cash. Growing up, I had planned to be a life-long renter since “mortgage” was a 4-letter word in our house. However, after 5 years of being DINKS (dual income, no kids) and saving more than 50% of our income each year, we had enough savings to buy our current home. Since we have no mortgage or rent expense we are able to quickly replenish our emergency funds when issues come up.

Up until 2014 I was so passionate and driven to build my finances, but for the last 2 years I’ve come to feel kind of complacent about money. Since I met my goals, I no longer have that drive; I’m in a bit of a financial funk. Although we still live pretty frugally, I’ve been struggling to come up with new goals/passions, financial or otherwise. I wish someone would have told my childhood self to aim higher than “financial stability”, to dream bigger.

Just to be clear, I’m not talking about upgrading material possessions. In my opinion, the American middle class lifestyle is freaking amazing. But I do want to save more, invest more, give more and grow more.

I plan to use this blog to stretch myself and start upping my financial game again in the following ways:

Define new goals and passions
Expand knowledge-Particularly on the topics of investing, behavioral finance, real estate, side hustles and financial independence/retiring early (FIRE)
Explore some of the creative ways that people make and save money
Outline the Do-It-Yourself (DIY) finance tools that I’ve created and used
Optimize saving and budgeting methods

1 thought on “FinanceRox Introduction post”