My Money Story

Life is really good right now. I love my business, I’m traveling full-time, I have great family members and friends, and more.

Even though life is great right now, I have experienced hard times in the past.

Instead of thinking negatively, though, I like to think that I’ve always used “down times” to my advantage. I believe that really helped me in the past!

Many of you have asked me for more background on myself and I thought explaining my whole money story would be the way to go.

I know that some of you feel like you’ll never get out of your bad financial situation. While life is great now, it hasn’t always been this way.

My blog is extremely different from when it was back in August of 2011 when I started it. I feel like a completely different person from back then and even more different when you think back to teenage Michelle.

Let’s rewind a little further, though, to almost a decade back when I was just 18.

My father passed away shortly after I graduated from high school from cancer, and I was struggling on my own. I was working full-time, paying all of my own bills, and I went to school full-time too.

Life was tough. Dealing with all of that in addition to the person who raised me passing away was very hard. It’s still something I struggle with to this day.

Anyway, I was working and going to school, which made for very long weeks. I was eating unhealthy on top of it all, and I still can’t believe I even managed it all back then.

I also wasn’t the greatest with money and I blamed it on the fact that I was too busy to care about how I was spending my money.

A few years after that, the housing market was down and I thought it would be a good idea to buy a home. I wasn’t in a great financial situation, or even a good one, but I bought anyways thinking I was okay. Thinking back on it, I am extremely happy that everything went well because it definitely could have turned sour.

I struggled with money all the time. We weren’t saving ANY money whatsoever, and everything was going towards bills.

Even a purchase of just $25 would be hard to stomach, so whenever a surprise expense would pop up, it would make for a sleepless night.

I continued to work full-time and attend school full-time for several years, up until when I finally received my Finance MBA. It was a tough several years, but it was well worth it.

Due to side hustling, I was even able to pay off my student loans early, which you can read more about here.

And, as you all know, my side hustles eventually led to me running my full-time business.

Life is much different now, and I couldn’t be happier! Hope you enjoyed my money story above. Short, but straight to the point! You are in charge of your own destiny. I never thought I would be where I am today.

Do you regret your past? Or do you believe it’s shaped you into who you are today?

 

I partnered with Credit Karma for this blog post. All opinions are 100% mine.