June 2016

In this blog I decided to write a short letter to myself about some my financial experiences, so take this journey with me!  I hope it helps you along your financial journey!

Dear Me,

What a journey this has been!  Over 15 years of financial ups & downs, and all I can do is rejoice in the fact that today, I finally got it together and have made some major strides to get in a position to not stress over money because of the mismanagement of it!  For that, I give myself a pat on the back and can't help but smile from ear to ear.  Because I know it hasn't always been what it is today!  So, let's talk about what it was like before and the lessons I've learned along the way that might also help someone reading this letter have financial victory!

It seems like not too long ago I was 18 years old and life as I knewit had changed so drastically, when my mother passed away and I became fully responsible for my financial future.  Boy, did I get off to a rocky start; going from never having topay a bill on my own to being fully in charge of every and all things financially that pertained to me.  I had no clue how to navigate through what was to come shortly after my mother had passed away.  First of all, I inherited a large sum of money from my mother's life insurance policy and this is where the disillusion started.  If I only had someone to give me the financial advice that I so desperately needed at the time, I might have avoided some of the financial pitfalls that I experienced.  But, hindsight is always 20/20 and I'm not one to live in regrets.

However, I do know that those early experiences of having that much money at such a young age was not an ideal situation for someone in my position.  Someone with no idea of how to be  resourceful with my finances and ask the necessary questions like how do I manage this money to help change my future and not blow it on frivolous things like clothes, parties, and cars.  Well, those questions never came and it once I got the money in my hands, it was pretty much a wrap!

Having this amount of money at this age and time, fostered the wrong kind of relationship between me and money.  Money was pretty much in control of the relationship and was managing me throughout my late teens and throughout my 20's.  I pretty much lived to spend, spend, spend money on a consistent basis but the fact that I kept a cool 10k in my savings account at all times led to my deceit that I was in a great place financially.  And, although I do give myself credit for having the ability to save that amount of money during my 20's, I still know that I was doing myself a disservice by living way above my means during a time when I needed to be conservative and seek out financial advice to help me get on a better financial pathway real quick.

However, that wasn't my story and as I said before I never live in regrets and I now have a strong appreciation for my hard headed lessons I had to learn.  Now, I can look at things from adifferent perspective, and I realize that I had to get past the bad money relationships that I was having in order for me to getto  the best relationship I now have with money.   Today I don't worry about money and it doesn't worry about me!  My money trust me to be a good steward over it and I trust God that money will continue to flow in consistently!

That's my story in short, but believe me it has so many interesting twist and turns that I didn't' have time to share during this volume, but don't worry I'll be sharing plenty more helpful financial stories during my future blogs.  Thank you for reading and remember that you're in control of your money, it's not in control of you!

Life Coach Lori