I used to say,

"How cool would it be if I could help others change their life through their finances like I did".

Now I'm doing exactly that!

But my story doesn't really start, or end there!

Read on to learn all about me!

If you think I'm here, as a financial coach, because I have always known all the right things to do with money, you would be...WRONG!

Past Mistakes

I've made all the mistakes. We'd be here all day if I told you about all of them. Here's a quick walk down memory lane.

I bought a brand-new Jeep off the lot when I was 18, without even a penny down! I knew nothing about the shiny new depreciating asset that had no air conditioning that I was about to take on my adventure to live in Florida. A few years later I was still up-side-down in the loan, and I WROTE A CHECK to SELL MY JEEP!

I took out more student loans than necessary. I used student loans to pay down credit cards. I knew nothing about repayment plans or the fact that unpaid interest would be added to the principal balance (interest capitalization). Due to my lack of understanding, I ended up paying more interest because of that higher principal.

I used to think that someday, down the road, I'd worry about the balances of my retirement accounts. Then I realized the true power of compound growth and woke up out of that dream, quick!

Maybe you weren't really taught much about money? Don't worry, I wasn't either.

But I'm living proof, you can change the direction you're going.

man in white dress shirt wearing black framed eyeglasses

The Turning Point

In 2010, I moved overseas and taught elementary school on US military bases in South Korea and Okinawa, Japan.

2017 was a year of change for my personal life. 2018 was the year of craving a fresh start.

The fresh start I wanted was to be financially secure enough to move back home and be closer to family.

In order to make that goal a reality, I HAD to tackle the one thing I'd been ignoring for a while...

THAT staggering pile of debt, totaling over $78,000.00.

It was the major thing that was keeping me stuck and unable to move towards what I really wanted in life.

woman biting pencil while sitting on chair in front of computer during daytime

You Have to Start Somewhere...

I have a fear of failure; there I said it.

So, I set my sights low at first.

My first goal was to get out of credit card debt.

After that I decided to tackle the retirement fund loan that I took out when I had no other choices. You will learn as we discuss strategies that taking a retirement fund loan is usually NOT the best financial move.

With credit cards and the retirement loan paid off I was feeling really good and bigger goals seemed possible. That feeling motivated me to confidently decide that I could be 100% debt free.

So, I began to tackle the biggest piece of that $78,000 debt, my student loans. Because of the terrifying total of my 9 different student loans, I decided to use the snowball method to focus on and pay off one loan at a time.

I spent hours and hours crunching the numbers, building spreadsheet after spreadsheet with my debt payoff plans. Every time I could move my "debt-free date" a little closer, I became more motivated and soon realized this could be a real possibility.

2020

In 2020, as we all know, the world changed.

Like many others who were personally affected by COVID, my dad got sick and spent 10 days in the ICU. I was on the other side of the world. Not that I could have done much anyways with all of the rules, but it fueled the fire inside me to work harder at my financial goals so that I could hopefully move back to make more memories before it was too late. My dad recovered, thankfully.

I completed my goal to becoming debt free on October 16, 2020.

Then I started aggressively saving money to build an emergency fund and a "move across the world and start over" fund. You guessed it, more spreadsheets! But the organization and clarity from those spreadsheets paid off when I achieved those goals just 7 months later and scheduled my move back closer to family.