15 Signs That You’re In Debt

April 26, 2016 by 1 Comment

Are you swimming in a sea of debt?  Do you spend more time trying to figure out how to pay your bills than you do relaxing and enjoying life?  If so you may be swimming in a sea of debt.   Living beyond your means can cause stress, deception, and robbing Peter to pay Paul.  Here’s a few signs that you’re in debt, and you need to assess your spending habits.  It may be impossible to live debt free, but curbing your spending can be empowering.  

 

debt elimination

 

 

  1. You live from paycheck to paycheck.
  2. Your savings account has a zero balance and your checking has a minus figure.
  3. You can’t remember the last time you paid your bills timely.
  4. Your friends always foot your bill on Girls Night Out and you’re comfortable with it.
  5. Bill collectors are calling and you tell the kids to tell them you’re not home.
  6. Hiding from family and friends because you haven’t repaid them.
  7. Arguing with your husband or significant other about money or lack of money.
  8. You have lost all hope of having an emergency fund.
  9. Your blood pressure numbers are higher than your credit score.
  10. Watching the Griswolds in National Lampoon’s Vacation is as close to a vacation as you will get.
  11. Ignoring health symptoms because you don’t have health insurance and can’t afford the bill.
  12. Thinking it would be easier to get to the moon than save money.
  13. You and the kids look like a million dollars, even though your accounts are set to zero.
  14. If your children asked for financial advice you wouldn’t be able to guide them.
  15. You search your cup holders, sofa and the washer for change.

Last, along with advice from a financial planner, my post 15 Tips To Save Money, has great tips on how you can take small steps to start saving money. It’s never too late to turn your finances around and start climbing out of debt. Additionally, here are a few others tips:

  • Become committed to leave your debt behind and make better decisions.
  • Check out Dave Ramsey’s book Your Money Or Your Life.
  • Stay on track, and stay focused on the signs that you’re in debt.
  • Get to the bottom of your overspending. You could possibly be trying to fill a void with your overspending.   

 

 

Filed Under: Empowerment, Finances Tagged With: , ,

15 Tips To Save Money

February 5, 2015 by
Are you wondering how to save money?   I look back over my life when I first moved out of my parent’s house and out on my own, and boy have I come a long way.  For most of my life I have been a single mother.  Budgeting, scraping, and sacrificing was a way of life for me.  However, I’m proud to say things got better as time went on.  I learned how to budget and save money.  As a result, I was able to purchase my own home, send my daughter on a international vacation, college educated her,  purchased a new car for her college graduation, travel, and built a significant savings account and retirement nest egg.  This is not a boast, but a blessing and an empowering experience.  As a result, I want to share my tips on how I saved money: 

 

tips to save money

 

  1. Pay yourself first – First, bank a portion of your check regularly. Put it into an account and forget about it.  I’ve cried broke my entire life, and I act as though the money doesn’t exist. People say they can hear me squeak.
  2. Limit credit cards – Instead of multiple lines of credit, why not drop it down to just one line of credit (or maybe even none). The Citi Double Cash review I read looked pretty promising.  Additional tips to save money is cash and carry.  It was my motto for most things.  Buying budget furniture and refinishing items cut down on household expenses.
  3. Shop wisely – I shop at thrift stores, yard sales and second hand stores. You can find brand new items, name brand items and gently used items. Don’t by-pass the Dollar Stores either, they’re great for school supplies, coloring books, crafts and snack items.
  4. Use coupons and discounts – You can save tons of money by using coupons and taking advantage of discounts.
  5. Look for free activities – Take advantage of free activities during the summer and holidays for family activities.
  6. Bank a part of your child support – If you’re single parent bank a portion of your child support. If you can’t bank half, bank what you can. I was able to send my daughter to Italy, Switzerland, Germany and Austria on child support that I saved for her.
  7. Drive an inexpensive car with low maintenance – My first car didn’t have an air conditioner and it was a straight stick. At this stage in my life I couldn’t handle either of the two, but I sacrificed when I was younger and able to endure.
  8. Pack your child’s lunch – My daughter was a brown bagger until high school. Packing her lunch relieved me of having to pay another bill.
  9. Start a Thrift Saving Plan (TSP) or 401-K – I invested my money for the past 25 years, and again acted as if it didn’t exist. When I needed a loan, I borrowed from my TSP at a much lower interest rate. When I retire, I will have a monthly check from my employer as well as everything that I have saved and earned for 25 years in my TSP. I plan to use this money to travel the world.
  10. Purchase clothes off season – I purchase clothes on clearance at the end of each season for the following year. I’m now able to shop where ever I want whenever I want, but I still purchase the majority of my clothes off the clearance rack and the kid’s clothing there as well.
  11. Start a vacation club – I’m able to vacation several times a year. I treat my daughter, son-in-law, 2 grandchildren and my friend each summer to a week at the beach.
  12. Prepare meals for the week – This will eliminate stopping at fast food places and spending money unnecessarily.
  13. Become a DIYer – After I purchased my home, I did my own painting, mowed the lawn, trimmed it and fixed minor things around the house. I saved thousands of dollars by doing my own work and banked it.
  14. Assess your household expenses – Tips to save money can be applied to your household expenses.  Get rid of unnecessary expenses and bank that money. You were spending it initially, so you shouldn’t miss it if you bank it.
  15. Be Creative – When I break a dollar, I throw the money to the bottom of my purse. I empty my purse at the end of the week, and place the money into jars. Once the jars are full I head to the bank and place it into my travel account.
These tips to save money have worked for me over the years and I’m sure they will work for you too. Start out doing 1 or 2 tips and increase the tips as you go. Remember, pennies add up to dollars, dollars turn into hundreds of dollars and eventually thousands. What do you do to save money?

 

Filed Under: Empowerment, Finances Tagged With: , ,

When Mom’s the Breadwinner

March 12, 2014 by

Are you the breadwinner in your family and feeling guilty because you’re not a stay at home mom?  If you’re a single mother, your chances of being a stay at home mom are slim.  That is unless you hit the jackpot with child support payments or have another income added to your bank account.  Neither of those things happened for me.  I felt guilty leaving my daughter when I headed out to work, but someone had to bring income into the home so bills could be paid.  That someone was me.  Today, I’m going to share a few tips for women breadwinners.  They will leave you smiling and empowered.   

 

 

single mothers

 

Unfortunately, being a single mother is not easy. However, you must get over your guilt if you’re feeling any.  I missed my daughter’s first step and her first time being successful using the potty because I was working. I finally had to make peace with my situation and accept the fact that I had to provide for us.  After all,  the child support I was receiving barely paid for her child care let alone pay the other bills.

I wondered how working outside the home would affect my daughter.  Would she grow up thinking that moms who stayed at home or who had husbands who provided was abnormal.  I wondered if not having her dad in the home as a role model would affect her negatively.  So many things went through my mind.  When I was growing up, my mother took care of the home while my father worked. You know the traditional woman versus man duties. Mom cooks, cleans, does laundry and dad works, mows the lawn, fixes the pipes.

I soon realized that times had changed.  The work force was full of women who had husbands and children, and still managed to run their homes.  The work force was also full of divorced or single women who also ran their homes, had children in school who were doing well and some had gone on to become lawyers, doctors and whatever else they choose.  I realized that the household that I grew up in was no longer the norm in society.  Women had moved up and on.  They had become multitasking moms and no longer fell into that traditional stay at home role.  We were proudly taking our place as women breadwinners and our current situations.

I also decided that I would never be my mother!  I love her for everything she did when I was growing up, I learned a lot.  She thought my sister and I going into the work force and becoming non-traditional mothers was strange. Now she sees that it’s the new normal.  We have an army of women breadwinners and we are marching with pride.

 

 

single parents

 

My daughter and I had several discussions about her father and me having to work to provide for us.  She understood that I wasn’t the only single mother in the world.  She had friends who had single mothers too. I continued to provide and she continued to excel because she had all the love and the necessities that she needed without a father in the home.  Here are a few lessons that she learned:

  • A mother’s love is the strongest love on this earth
  • She had a strong mother who taught her to be a strong woman and mother
  • Welfare and other public assistance is not an option when you’re able to work
  • Always work to better yourself and don’t blame others for you decisions
  • We don’t live in a perfect world
  • Break circles when you need to
  • There are children who have fathers in the home who are drunks, drug addicts or who just don’t contribute and live off their wife or girlfriend

 

So if you’re in the group of women bread winners or sole provider for your child or children, you’re doing your job as a mother.  You will find that it gives you a sense of purpose, and they will respect you for everything you’ve done for them.  Single mothers raised these leaders and celebrities:

  • Judge Greg Mathis
  • President Obama
  • President Clinton
  • Mary J Blige
  • Pierce Brosnan
  • Tom Cruise
  • Al Pacino
  • Barbara Streisand
  • Mariah Carey
  • Halle Berry
Our children may not grow up to be presidents and celebrities, but we don’t have to feel guilty as women breadwinners, single mothers and neither do our children.  Stand proud, stay strong and earn that bread!
 
Filed Under: Empowerment, Finances Tagged With: , ,