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How We Saved Over $100,000 By Age 26

Last Updated: August 13, 2021 BY Michelle Schroeder-Gardner - 13 Comments

Disclosure: This post may contain affiliate links, meaning I get a commission if you decide to make a purchase through my links, at no cost to you. Please read my disclosure for more info.

Hey everyone! Today, I have a great savings story to share from a reader named Nichole. She will be talking about how she went from -$20,000 to a six-figure savings by 26 years old.

The following will be outlining my experience getting scammed and how it catapulted me into learning about how money works. I will divulge all the things I’ve done to earn a six-figure savings, pay off over $20,000 in debt and stay consistent with saving for a home to pay cash. I will go over the importance of knowing your “why” and how it has a large part in saving money. I believe we all have the ability to be successful with our finances and sharing my story hopefully encourages you to stay motivated during your own journey.

Since I was a little girl I’ve always yearned for independence and responsibility. My mother tells the story like this:

“It was your first week of kindergarten and I walked you to the bus stop to drop you off. You didn’t even let me drive you that first day! When I met you at the bus stop after school at 2pm you look at me and say “mom, you don’t need to pick me up from the bus stop, I can walk home without you”. I had to explain to you that wasn’t allowed because you were only five years old and the school didn’t allow that.”

The moral of the story is, if I could do it on my own I did. This included making money so I could buy my own stuff.

Throughout elementary and middle school I sold things to make money: lanyards, bracelets, candy, even offered to do peoples homework for $5 in 6^th grade!

Earning money gave me more independence to pay for the things I wanted, so I always stayed motivated. [Read more…]

13 Best Early Retirement Books – You NEED To Read These Books

Last Updated: August 9, 2021 BY Michelle Schroeder-Gardner - 7 Comments

Disclosure: This post may contain affiliate links, meaning I get a commission if you decide to make a purchase through my links, at no cost to you. Please read my disclosure for more info.

Do you want to learn how to retire early? Today, I’m sharing the best early retirement books to motivate you and help you start planning for your future.

Early retirement is very popular right now, and you may be wondering if it’s possible for you and how to make it happen.

If early retirement is something you’re dreaming about, then I highly recommend reading the books I’m sharing with you today.

Many of the best early retirement books focus on FIRE, which stands for financial independence, retire early. FIRE can mean many different things, but books about FIRE are some of my favorites to read because they are very informative and give me lots of motivation.

The books below can help you learn more about FIRE, as well as dive deeper into the many different ways to become financially independent and retire early.

Reading books about early retirement can be a great way to learn specific actions steps that you need to take to reach early retirement. [Read more…]

What Is Estate Planning? Do I Need To Do This?

Last Updated: August 5, 2021 BY Michelle Schroeder-Gardner - 10 Comments

Disclosure: This post may contain affiliate links, meaning I get a commission if you decide to make a purchase through my links, at no cost to you. Please read my disclosure for more info.

What is estate planning?

Over the years, I have received plenty of questions about creating a will and estate planning.

After all, anyone over the age of 18 probably needs to have at least some part of an estate plan.

Quick note about an easy giveaway: Vicki and Amy are also giving away three of their Estate Planning 101 books away. Simply leave a comment below and I will randomly select three winners.

Recently, I asked you, my readers, what questions you have about estate planning. Some of the questions you had included:

What is estate planning and why is it important?
Is there a situation in which you would not need an estate plan?
At what age should I start estate planning?
Should I do my estate planning myself or hire a lawyer?
What is the difference between a trust and a will?
Who should have a will or trust?
Who is best to make the executor of your estate plan?
What happens if a person passes away without an estate plan?
What are the main steps in estate planning?

Because this is not an area that I’m an expert in, I gave these questions to Vicki Cook and Amy Blacklock who are experts in the area of estate planning.

Vicki Cook and Amy Blacklock are coauthors of Estate Planning 101 and cofounders of the award-winning personal finance website Women Who Money. Vicki’s also the founder and blogger behind Make Smarter Decisions, and Amy’s the founder and blogger behind the award-winning site Life Zemplified. Additionally, they’ve been frequent contributors to GOBankingRates, Wealthfit, Medi-Share, and various personal finance sites around the web. [Read more…]

How We Travel Full-Time On $1,400 Per Month

Last Updated: August 3, 2021 BY Michelle Schroeder-Gardner - 16 Comments

Disclosure: This post may contain affiliate links, meaning I get a commission if you decide to make a purchase through my links, at no cost to you. Please read my disclosure for more info.

Next up in my Extraordinary Series is Melissa Nance and Wade Smith from The Penny Pinching Globetrotter. They have been traveling full-time for four years and on a low budget of just $1,400 per month. This includes all of their living expenses as well as money spent on travel.

In August of 2015, Melissa found out she had cancer and spent lots of time thinking about what she wanted the rest of her life to look like.

Travel was at the top of her list, and she was determined to find a way to make it happen.

Neither her nor her husband had a remote job, so they found other ways to make it work, such as her husband working for U.S. National Parks for free camp stays and income.

They have visited 15 national parks, 20 national monuments, camped in 21 states, visited 7 countries, and more.

And, they have done all of this on a very realistic and low budget.

In this interview, you’ll learn:

The big obstacles they had to overcome to getting started with full-time traveling
The type of RV they have
Their monthly budget and what they spend each month
What they do to save money while traveling/living
How they make money

And more! [Read more…]

14 Best Camping Breakfast Recipes For Your Next Trip

Last Updated: July 28, 2021 BY Michelle Schroeder-Gardner - 3 Comments

Disclosure: This post may contain affiliate links, meaning I get a commission if you decide to make a purchase through my links, at no cost to you. Please read my disclosure for more info.

Are you planning your next camping trip and looking for delicious camping breakfast recipes?

Camping can be a very affordable way to travel and visit new and exciting places. And, it’s a fun activity to do with your family, your partner, or even by yourself.

While camping is a lot of fun, it can be challenging to plan out your meals, and you need to pack and transport everything with you.

Because it’s not like you can always simply open the fridge or pantry, some people think that the only options when camping are roasting hot dogs and granola bars.

That’s not the case at all, especially if you put in a bit of work to prep your meals in advance.

Camping is also an excellent opportunity to get creative with your cooking, and you will quickly learn that you can make almost anything while camping.

This is one of the lessons we’ve learned while traveling full-time in our camper van.

Actually, being in a camper van, RV, or boat is similar to camping because you have very limited kitchen space. You often only have one burner too, so you have to get creative when you cook. [Read more…]

We’re Pregnant!

Last Updated: July 26, 2021 BY Michelle Schroeder-Gardner - 183 Comments

Disclosure: This post may contain affiliate links, meaning I get a commission if you decide to make a purchase through my links, at no cost to you. Please read my disclosure for more info.

Hey everyone!

Big news.

We are having a baby!

We are super excited for this new adventure that we are on, and I can’t wait to share more.

I went back and forth on whether or not I wanted to share this directly on the blog, but many of you have been with me for years, and I haven’t really done a life update in a very long time.

I completely understand that a pregnancy announcement can lead to mixed feelings, and both good and bad judgment/advice/etc. Also, I do not plan on having things change around here on Making Sense of Cents, as personal finance is still what this website is all about.

Anyway, this is exciting news for us, as Baby Gardner is due in December 2021!

We are so excited to share that we will be starting our greatest adventure yet, and we can’t wait to show our new family member the world.

Pregnancy has been interesting so far, with lots of nausea (but I actually haven’t thrown up at all) for the past couple of months. Eating has been difficult, which feels crazy because I’m usually a huge eater and will eat anything. But, pregnancy has led to a lot of food aversions.

I am starting to feel better now, though, so I am hoping to get ahead in work, do as many fun things as I can, and prepare for the new family addition as best as we can.

I know that many of you are probably wondering (this is the number one question that I’ve received so far)- Our plan for right now is to live with our new family member on our boat. We plan on taking it slow but eventually doing a lot of travel with our new family member by boat, van, plane, etc.

Please leave a comment below:

If you have any books or blogs that you recommend I read about pregnancy, starting a family, work/life balance as a parent, traveling families, etc.
If you have any positive advice or kind words that you’d like to share
If you have any questions for me.

Thank you so much for following along on my journey over the years. Things are about to get even more interesting!

Have a great week!

Best Blogging Courses & Resources That Helped Me Make $100,000+

Last Updated: July 23, 2021 BY Michelle Schroeder-Gardner - 5 Comments

Disclosure: This post may contain affiliate links, meaning I get a commission if you decide to make a purchase through my links, at no cost to you. Please read my disclosure for more info.

Are you looking to grow your blog and make more money blogging? Then you need to check out the best blogging courses and resources to grow your traffic and income.

Since I started my blog 10 years ago, I have earned over $5,000,000. I have also helped countless people improve their financial situation, make extra money, travel more, pay off their debt, and more.

Blogging changed my life for the better, and it allows me to earn thousands of dollars a month, all by doing something that I love.

The funny thing is that I created my blog on a whim after reading about a personal finance website in a magazine.

At first, my blog was just a hobby to track my own personal finance progress.

I honestly didn’t even know that people could make money blogging when I first started this site back in 2011.

My interest in blogging quickly grew, but like I said it was all just a hobby. I wanted a space to write about my financial situation, have a support group, to keep track of how I was doing, and more. [Read more…]