Hello & Welcome

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Thanks so much for visiting my blog. I am excited and to be honest, a little nervous, about sharing our journey to financial independence with you all.

In our society, we don’t really talk about money with each other, let alone post about it online for the world to read about.

But, I want to be a part of this movement of people sharing their financial successes and struggles to help others!

A little bit about me

I am originally from California (hence the beach pic above) and currently live in the Pacific Northwest with my best friend and husband, Bret. He is currently in grad school.

In my free time, I love to hang with friends/family, play board/card games, watch movies, laugh, be out in the sun, travel, play volleyball, garden, volunteer, and craft.

For work, I am a medical social worker. I graduated with my Master of Social Work in May 2018.

The beginning of the finance rabbit hole

A friend told me about high-yield savings accounts (HYSAs) in December 2021. I could not believe I had never heard about these accounts before!

How could there be an account where I could earn more interest than my regular savings account and why I am just learning about this now?!

We don’t learn about this stuff in school.

Whyy don’t we learn more about finances, budgeting, credit, loans, and investing in school?!

Related: Why You Need A High-Yield Savings Account (HYSA)

Reading more about HYSAs, I started seeing content from people who were talking about how they are working towards retiring early.

Ummm, yes, please! Where can I sign up?

Some call it financial independence, retire early, or F.I.R.E.

To read more about F.I.R.E, click here.

I then found Delyanne Barros who shares content making investing easy to understand while on her own journey of retiring early within the next year and moving to Portugal. She is amazing and I have learned a ton from her.

I bought her Slay The Stock Market course and I HIGHLY recommend it if you are wanting to start learning about investing in the stock market but don’t know where to start.

Since December 2021, I have been reading, learning, and making plans to pay off Bret and I’s combined debt amount of $277,721.41 ($260,390.25 of it is student loans).

We are also working on being better budgeters, living below our means, finding ways to increase our income, and learning how to invest our money to build wealth.

We want to become financially independent so we can retire early, volunteer, travel, spend more time with family/friends and work only because we want to, not because we have to.

Why I started this blog

I am learning so much about personal finance and I want to share it with everyone! I seriously can’t shut up about this stuff.

I want others to feel empowered to take control of their finances, pay off debt, and invest to build the life they truly want to live… spending time doing the things they actually want to do.

I want to promote financial education and literacy in communities of color to help us break poverty cycles and help us live the lives we truly want.

Many of us are “working for the weekend”, with hopes and dreams of retiring and then finally getting to do the things we love.

The norm in our society is we work our 9-5’s until we are 65ish and then retire (or we have to keep working because we can’t afford to retire, see link below).

We then hope to travel for some years and do the things we never got to do before because we were always working… and then we die.

Sorry, that’s so morbid but seeeeriously, come ooooon.

I want more for myself and my family. More for you and your family.

And sometimes people have different obligations during their retirement than they were expecting (e.g. are diagnosed with a terminal illness, have to care for a dying parent, care for grandchildren) and/or are unable to afford to live the way they want because social security is their only income.

Check out this article from The Atlantic, This Is What Life Without Retirement Savings Looks Like

By Alana Semuels

The only way we are going to be “living our best lives” is if we save, avoid debt, and invest our money.

Investing can be a scary word and it was one for me too, but I hope to make it less scary through what I share on this blog.

We don’t talk about money enough in our society and I think even more so in spaces with women and/or people of color. I do think this is changing and I want to facilitate and inspire these conversations.

Talking about money is uncomfortable and I know I may be uncomfortable writing about my own financial situation at times, but I’ll get over it because sharing this information outweighs my discomfort.

This blog will also serve as another way for me to track our financial situation and keep us accountable.

Final Thoughts

I hope this blog can inspire and help you as you navigate your own financial journey. Know that I want this to be a space where we all can be open about our financial struggles and successes without judgment.

If you find yourself whining about your 9-5 and wanting a change, or just want to learn new money management strategies, then this blog is for you!

Let me know in the comments below where you are at in your financial journey. Good luck to you and thanks again for visiting my blog!

Also, shoutout to one of my best friends, Dora, who doesn’t mind helping me with blog content ideas and loves to talk about money just as much as I do.