Money Trail

When I checked the calendar today....it slapped me in the face and told me to wake the hell up! It's almost NOVEMBER.

With that in mind, I had to face the fact that even though I am on my financial trek to get my "house" in order for 2012, I might need to amp it up a bit. For those of you who may not know what financial trek I'm referring to, check out my YouTube post from a few days ago--> Confession

So back to today. I decided what was missing was a SOLID plan. I can't just say that I'm going to spend less. In the past 15 years or so, I have become very financially savvy. Coupons, discount airfare and travel, 401K's, investing, home owning, comparison pricing...I was doing pretty well. Then I became divorced in 2007, and I really had to tighten up. I stuck to a budget, signed up for automatic bi-weekly transfers to my savings account, as well as added to my full time income by starting side businesses.

If you watched my video, you know that my goal is to start generating income from my business by the end of 2012. Within the next 2 years, the ultimate goal is to be financially independent from working for someone else. To that end, I searched online today to see if there were any new tips I was missing to complete my solid financial plan. I found this article on About.com, aimed toward single parents: Find Money Article.
The article was based on a 2008 interview, but I think there's still some relevant, good advice there. Finding an extra $250/month sounds fabulous to me!

I know for my family of now 2 (my eldest son is an adult and lives on his own in Atlanta), I spend WAY too much money on groceries/food for my 12 year old son. With dedicated couponing and cutting out 3x/week runs to the Kroger's, I'm pretty sure I can at least save $50/week right there. I also followed Dave Ramsey's radio show for a while in Atlanta and he talked about living on 60% of your income-basically living below your means. It's a shift in thinking, but it's doable because I have done it.

Debt reduction + increasing income=wealth building.

I'll be updating my blog, as well as my YouTube page with my progress, as well as with any new money saving/finding tips I come across.

Love and happiness!

Nikki