Where Did I Start to Change My Life

Starting in 2025 I really got interested in finances, I think that was really first step outside of music that I started to make a change. I spent a lot of time reading about finances and credit. I would watch videos, I even learned how to (kind of) work excel to make my own budget template and debt trackers. Really I thought about selling digital content but I could figure it out just yet plus was not sure if anyone would buy it. This is the first one I use for my personal budget except empty. Incase anyone is wondering I designed it from a Youtube video, not the one I was planning to sell but where my finacial journey started.

January budget sheet with income, savings, expenses, and bills tables in pink. Includes cash flow and budget vs. actual chart.

For the Longest time I Never Cared about my Finances

Growing up I was never taught anything about finances. I have always never had money, I never had anyone to teach me about money. When I had kids I know I wanted a house eventually where they could stay and grow up. My idea of getting a house came from me moving all the time as a kids and constantly losing friends. I wanted something different for my kids. I wanted them to have stability in a nice place and vacations. Well, after my fiance and realized bipolar was a lot more serious then we thought because he was running away from the house constantly and I had no help with the kids. Being the main provider I needed someone. So we picked up our whole life and moved 9 hours away in a different state to be near my family.

Financial Impacts

So, when moving we I was working a good job and my fiance was working a part time job so together we were making about 81k annually; granted that is not a lot. After moving my base salary went to 36k annually and that is for our whole family. Now I work sales so I do get commision but I still can't get back to the 81K that we were at before. Moral of that small story is, we are not getting the same income we use to. So things got kind of tight for us. I decided to try to get our finances in order so that way I could move into our own house eventually. Now of course I am working in sales but I have to say I hate it. It stresses me out so much and I want to change jobs but of course Im not sure what I want to do.

Paying Down Debt

While going on this financial journey I have decided to start making a dent in our debt as well. I list out everything and came up with a plan to to break up month payments towards debt and if it something I have to pay all at once I usually have it sitting in a High Yeild Savings account.

Investing

I alreayd have a 401k with my job but i started brokerage accoutn with fidelity and put some money in there to try to start investing some. I also started 529s for my children, I realized later I should probably pay other things off first before continuing to contribute to that so they have kind of been sitting there

Savings

I have started an emergency savings I put a small amount too until I start svaing a lot more later, I also have small savings set up for different things that will happen regardless if I like it or not. examples would be car maintenance, birthdays, holidays ect

This is a small step on my finance journey but it is a start and that what you have to so is start right?