#financial-decluttering

#financial-decluttering

"Learning a valuable skill can drastically increase your earning potential. I've seen clients master skills like coding or digital marketing and significantly boost their incomes."

Being financially independent is a truly stunning and incredible circumstance. It gives you autonomy: You love your job? Great! Stay there and throw some more dollars on the pile!

The Inconvenient Rule involves purposely making the laundry inconvenient so that you don't put it off and let the piles grow. Since starting this method, I have felt more on top of washing, folding, and putting away clothes.

I always wanted to be an inventor. That's when I started really thinking about how I could bring some extra money in, but without sacrificing that safety net that I had built at my job.

Filing a return can be time-consuming and complicated. The possibility of an audit feels intimidating. And the cost can be high. Each year, Americans collectively work nearly four months just to cover their combined federal, state and local taxes. If you earn $100,000 a year, that can add up to more than $1 million over the course of your career - money that could otherwise be invested in your business or your family.

Looking back, it's easy to spot the moments where things could have gone differently. At the time, each financial decision felt justified, and sometimes even smart! Whether it was driven by optimism, pressure, or a belief that I could "figure it out later," I made choices that seemed reasonable in the moment but were costly over time. What surprised me most wasn't just the money lost, but how similar the underlying mistakes were.

My goal was to only pay bills. I didn't want to buy anything extra, but I knew things always come up, like my son needing something for school. I told myself ahead of time that I could "break the freeze" for absolute necessities only. Over the 30 days, copays for doctor's appointments and prescription costs were the only unexpected purchases I made.

Trina, a 38-year-old Florida resident, was drowning in $44,000 of debt on a $60,000 annual income. Her financial obligations spanned car loans, credit cards, and her son's private school tuition-a complex web of commitments that became more concerning when she revealed filing Chapter 7 bankruptcy just two years earlier. This recent bankruptcy suggested her struggles weren't isolated incidents but part of a recurring pattern of financial instability.

You can't put $2,500 away right now because you got 86,000 freaking dollars in debt sucking the bone marrow out of your life. The key phrase is 'focused investing.' That only happens after the debt is gone. $2,500 per month represents exactly 15% of a $200,000 annual income. Right now, that $2,500 is not available because it's already being consumed by debt service.

The past few years have done a number on a lot of people's savings. Between high levels of unemployment spurred by the pandemic and several years of rampant inflation, many folks have whittled down their cash reserves to practically nothing. An estimated 63% of U.S. workers did not have enough savings on hand to cover a $500 emergency expense, according to Fintech company SecureSave. That's kind of scary, though, because as a general rule, it's important to have a large enough emergency fund to cover at least three months of expenses.

At the beginning of the year, I looked more closely at one particular statement than I had before. I was shocked by the number of transactions I didn't recognize. They turned out to be subscriptions. My 17-year-old daughter told me that she'd been offered a special deal at the Verizon store: access to Apple Music for up to six people for $10 a month. She was desperate to take advantage of the promotion and said the streaming service had an amazing selection of songs.