Life Archives - Making Sense Of Cents

My Best Advice For Graduates – 16 Tips Every Graduate Needs To Hear

Last Updated: April 19, 2021 BY Michelle Schroeder-Gardner - 2 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 wondering what is the best advice for graduates? Whether you or someone you know is graduating high school or college, I have some great tips and wisdom to share.

Graduating is a life changing experience.

You’ve worked incredibly hard to reach this achievement, and it’s both a stressful and exciting time.

You might be wondering what you’re going to do next with your life, or you may have a plan. There were times when I felt like I knew exactly what I wanted to do after graduation, but I was also completely clueless at times too.

Graduation means you’re moving onto the next phase of your life, which is why it’s both so scary and thrilling.

It only makes sense that you would be looking for the best advice for graduates. [Read more…]

20 Ways To Organize Your Life In 2021

Last Updated: March 20, 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.

Does your life feel pretty chaotic? Would you like to learn how to organize your life so that it is simpler and less stressful?

Well, this blog post is for you!

Life can be difficult, and I completely understand that.

It can feel quite daunting to manage everything from paying bills, family life, retirement planning, and more.

On top of financial stress, many of us live with a lot of disorder and chaos. Some of us fill our houses with things we don’t need or will ever use. Some people have spending problems, live with debt, feel unsatisfied with their job, etc.

There is also a lot of emotional stress that comes when you live with so much mental chaos and clutter. You might feel depressed, anxious, have low self-esteem, etc. You may also start to compare your life to others — thinking that they have it so easy and are so much happier. [Read more…]

2020 Business and Life Review

Last Updated: April 7, 2021 BY Michelle Schroeder-Gardner - 54 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.

Welcome to my 2020 Business and Life Review!

Usually, I separate my travel and business annual review content into two separate blog posts, but this year I’ve decided to combine it into one.

2020 was a different kind of year, and I’m sure nearly everyone would agree with that statement.

It was a tough year for a lot of people, and I completely understand.

I feel very grateful for the life that I get to live, but it was a hard year for me as well. I lost two important family members in my life, my grandma as well as my dog who was my best friend for almost 14 years.

[Read more…]

Your 2021 Goals – How To Set And Reach Goals In The New Year

Last Updated: December 31, 2020 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.

Do you plan on setting 2021 goals for yourself?

If you’re like many people around the world, the answer is probably yes.

Whether you want to call it a New Year’s resolution or a goal, having goals for yourself can be a great thing. And, the new year is the perfect time to think about what you want your future to be like.

Setting goals for the new year is a long standing tradition.

However, only about 8% of people actually achieve their New Year’s goals each year. And, only 75% of those who are setting 2021 resolutions will follow through with them after the first week of the year.

It’s crazy that 25% of people will stop working towards their resolutions after just the first week! And by June, more than half of the people who set 2021 resolutions will have forgotten about them.

So, why do so many people fail to reach their goals each new year?

There are many reasons for why goals aren’t met, and a lot of it has to do with how you set your goals.

Is your goal specific enough?
Is your goal achievable?
Is your goal realistic?

These factors can have a huge impact on whether or not you are able to reach your goals. [Read more…]

Ask Me Anything

Last Updated: July 6, 2020 BY Michelle Schroeder-Gardner - 231 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.

It’s been a long time since my last Ask Me Anything here on Making Sense of Cents.

Ask Me Anything is literally that – you can ask me anything. If you’re struggling to figure out what to ask, here are a few of the topics you may want to know more about:

Personal finance
Blogging
My life
Travel
RVing
Sailing
Being location independent
Business
Making extra money
Questions about my dogs

And so on, and so on.

Seriously, ask me anything in the comments below, and I will take the time to answer every single one. Of course, please nothing inappropriate or creepy. I’ll let you be the judge of what is creepy, I guess, haha!

All right, go for it, ask away!

P.S. If you’re looking to see all of the comments and questions, make sure to hit “Older Comments” or “Newer Comments” below. The comments break apart in pages once there are over 50 comments.

12 Ways To Stay Motivated So You Can Reach Your Money Goals

Last Updated: February 21, 2021 BY Michelle Schroeder-Gardner - 2 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.

Learning how to stay motivated is incredibly important if you’re paying off debt, trying to reach a savings goal, learning a new skill, or doing anything challenging.

While it can be difficult, you have to learn how to get motivated and then learn how to stay motivated every day if you want to make your goals happen.

I know how hard this is because I struggled at times with motivation when I was paying off my $40,000 in student loan debt in just 7 months.

And, one of the top questions I receive about my debt payoff story is how I was able to push myself and stay motivated to pay off all of my debt.

Paying off my debt was extremely hard – I will not lie about that!

I took on several side jobs to make extra money.

I had to wake up early in the morning to work on them before I went to my regular day job, and then I stayed up late working on my side jobs too. [Read more…]

9 Tips To Wake Up Early & Why It Feels So Good

Last Updated: April 7, 2021 BY Michelle Schroeder-Gardner - Leave a Comment

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 wake up early?

Some people are early birds and others are night owls. For me, I go both ways. Sometimes I am good at going to bed early and then wake up early in the morning.

Then I go through phases when I stay up late, really late, and then wake up late in the day.

Some of the early birds I know may laugh at this because I know many who wake up at 4 a.m., and I’m definitely not one of those people.

You don’t have to wake up at 4 a.m. to be an early bird, unless you really want to. I’m just talking about how to wake up early in the morning, maybe just an hour or two, instead of waking up in a rush for work or regularly sleeping in until the afternoon.

Now, some of you may think I’m crazy for suggesting that you even think about waking up earlier in the day. [Read more…]

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