I was in The Wall Street Journal!

Does It Pay to Start at Community College? Maybe

A reporter reached out to me back in June about interviewing for a piece she was writing on transfer students for the Wall Street Journal. Of course I agreed, and I am glad I did! Although the interview process was quite lengthy, the portion of my story in the whole piece is quite small. I am in no way complaining about that though; it's just an FYI!

Late last night my mom wondered if my article made it to print in the actual printed Wall Street Journal. I hadn't even thought about that and wondered myself, so I emailed the reporter, and sure enough! The article I was in as well as my picture was printed in the wealth management section of every Wall Street Journal that day. Since my mom couldn't find any where she was, she googled where I could find them here in Nashville; I drove and picked up the remaining few papers that were left at Vanderbilt's Barnes and Nobel :)

That was a very cool feeling and a very humbling day. Big thank you to Jillian Berman for reaching out to me!

Click here to view the article!

Happy Last Month of 2015!

Hello out there. I figured it was time to check-in and provide an update or two on where I am these days J

I have a new job. Still corporate America, still a cubical, and still 8-5. BUT I like it a lot better than the previous one that I was at for the past 4 years. Although it was a lateral move, salary wise. There are budget saving aspects about it that will make it feel as if I got a pay increase for jumping ship:

-         It is 4 minutes from my house. That shaves off approximately 40 minutes each way every day and saves a ton of gas. Also, no more interstates every single day; thank you, Jesus!

-          They have a parking lot. That is free. No more having to give $65 a month to a crappy downtown parking garage to be able to park while at work. (Side note here, their parking spots are just a few steps away from the door which means no more elevators, escalators, stairs, and having to walk 1/3 of a mile outside just to get to your office. HUGE quality of life improvement!)

-         They do not have any restaurants, grocery stores, and cafes in walking distance like the previous job. So no more breakfast, lunch and snack buying temptations; I eat what I bought to eat from the grocery store that week. Sadly, that means no more Starbucks either, so there’s $25 a month alone.

So, where am I at on my loans? I last updated y’all on my balance in mid-June; it was at $36k then. I am happy to report that now, approximately 5 and a half months later, my loan balance is at $26k. So 10 grand down from my last update J

I am still aiming to be debt-free by late next near. 

Be a Unicorn

Being normal is easy. Too easy. It is a path that is very alluring in every way. Want this? Well, buy it, finance it, or put it on a credit card and it’s yours. It will never stop; you will always want more. You will want what he has or what she has or what they have. It is a nightmare that will be on replay your entire life. I don’t’ want to live like that. However, a lot of my peers do and they don’t even realize it. I am not in any way perfect with my budget, and believe me, I have expensive wants, but I do feel that I have a sense of control over it. What first made me realize this was reading Dave’s slogan, “Debt is normal. Be weird.” It is SO TRUE. Everywhere you look, people are in debt. And the problem with that? They don’t see a problem!! Because? It’s normal!! Face palm. If that’s the norm, normal sucks.

Sure, there are people who have been and always will be financially responsible. I have a large amount of student loan debt to pay off. Some don’t. But working through my pay-off plan, I have stumbled across many other things I would have never stopped to take the time to research: 401k, stock options, Roth IRA, etc. I hope to be debt free and in retirement saving mode by the time I am 29, almost 30. Talk about a goal I never thought I’d never thought I’d have at 29! Are there people out there my age who are debt-free and already have a significant amount in the bank and in their retirement? You bet. But I’m also willing to bet it is not a huge percentage of folks. I want to join that small percent. I want to pass up the beautiful Michael Kors purse and matching wallet so that I can put that money towards financial freedom. And knowing that my TJ Maxx purse is a symbol of that, makes me feel not so ashamed toting it around town.

Debt snowballing is not really normal. There are people who know nothing about it and there are people who wholeheartedly disagree with it. But that’s okay. I know I am going against the grain here, and when I stop to think about where my motivation comes from to keep this going, it is precisely that; I’m not normal. I am doing something very few people are doing and I think that is cool. I am standing out in a crowd. I am a unicorn.