I recently shared my hardest blog post ever. I talked about the fallout that happened when my mom lost her job and toll it took on my personally, emotionally, and financially. Situations like the one that I was in often times occur when you least expect them and you feel like you’ve been punched in the gut when they do.
As 2015 wrapped up I spend a lot of time thinking about what my “purpose” is in this life. Before I burnt out spectacularly at my old job I was helping people and really enjoy it for many years. I enjoyed helping the international students I was working with: solve problems, navigate living in a foreign country, meet new friends, and have a great time while they lived in Colorado. There were many aspects of my old job that were really wonderful.
However, as time went on I started feeling that I was helping the wrong demographic. I wanted to help more people like myself:
- People who may be struggling financially.
- People who are working hard to improve their lives.
- Wannabe Entrepreneurs who are trying to create their “best lives” through helping others and providing value to the people that they are helping.
- People who imagine living their lives in a way that’s not the norm: living on a boat, traveling the world, living in a tiny home, a retro-fitted bus-you get the picture.
In order to help people do this there are three huge shifts that have to happen in most people’s lives: change their finances, save money, and learn how to make more money. Looking at the past couple of years I realized that I was a wiz at most of those skills EXCEPT for saving money.
Eureka!
And then I had a “Eureka” moment. I figured out that monetizing my website as a challenge was not enough-I needed to create a community and start a movement. Because…why not? I want to encourage and inspire the following:
- People to SAVE MONEY-When my mom lost her job both of us having larger amounts of savings available to us managing that difficult time would have been much easier. My mom was super frugal but hadn’t saved a ton. I…was NOT frugal…and learned frugal habits quickly. There are two types of savings that I’m focused on: savings on all expenses and actual saved money for emergencies, dreams, and the rest. In order to do that I will be sharing two tools that I am pretty excited about-the first is Betterment.com. Learn more about Betterment
(affiliate link) and see if it’s a good fit for your needs. The second is Digit.co (affiliate link) a super easy and fun saving’s tool that helps users save and grow tiny increments of cash and nurture a habit of saving. I hope by sharing these tools and sharing my story I encourage people to focus on saving. You just never know when the sh$t will hit the fan. Have the cash when it does!
- Entrepreneurship-I don’t think that it’s bad to work for a business. I do, however, think it’s important to have your own little side project that brings in money and helps you develop skills, relationships, and (ahem) make money that is independent of your job. I am very leery of the current state of American business and how employees factor into the long-term focus of most businesses. People work in At Will States, processes are being monetized (cashier, bank tellers, farming, and the list goes on) Nurture a different skill while you work your current job. I’m sounding a little intense but this is honest and this is reality. Please don’t have all your eggs in one basket.
- Community-I would like to create a space for sharing ideas, information, and resources. The type of space that I didn’t have available to me when my mom and I were struggling. I want to surround myself with painfully positive and genuine people who just want me and everyone else in that community to succeed at whatever it is we are trying to do with our lives. Sometimes the people in your life just don’t “get” you-this would be the space to go to to surround yourself with people who do!
I am thankful for the hard times that I’ve had in life because they have changed me in a very profound and intense way. I feel that I have an obligation to share not only my experience, but the knowledge that I gained, and support people who might not get enough support from the people who surround them-even if those people love them dearly.
Save More Money
You’ll thank me later! If you’re wondering how I’m saving for the future click here!
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Cool goal, Michelle! 🙂 I am a big fan of Betterment. I try to forget about the auto-deposits each month, but in the back of my mind I know I have a bunch of extra money sitting around in case I absolutely need it (in addition to my regular emergency fund in a savings account).
I’m also looking into some entrepreneurship options too…which is a totally new thing for me, and very exciting!
Thanks! I just felt that it was important to help and encourage other people with something that I also struggle with-win/win! I like the way that both Betterment and Digit are set up. Both are really user friendly which is part of why I’m really working on letting people know about those services.
Me too, Michelle! Inspiring people to change their lives with smart financial decisions is the main reason I still blog 🙂
I didn’t want to just blog and talk about money woes LOL! I want to help people make some profound financial changes so that they can live their dream lives.
grrr, I left you a long comment but it didn’t take. Basically I said i agree with the side job while you are working full time point.
What is the deal with commenting GRR!!! I actually copy and save each time I write comments because this has happened to me too many times.
loving this post!!!
Thanks Giulia! This is really important to me so I’m focusing on it.