Budgeting While Making Cents

When I decided to start “Budgeting while making cents” it was to help others who are on a low/limited income like me. Learning how to budget and manage your money properly allows you to live the life you deserve. Prior to me deciding to complete my college degree it was easy for me to save money. I knew how to plan a budget using my income and it was not difficult to stay within those limits.

Fast forward! To complete my degree I had to change career paths. The next words I am about to tell you are still hard for me to believe but hang in there with me. My income decreased $40,000 a year to take a job that allowed me the time I needed with my family as well as my educational growth. Besides my car note that I refinanced to get lower monthly payments and a lower interest rate all my bills stayed the same. No payments were late. Nothing repossessed. However, my spending habits never changed. Now that I am finished with my degree and reviewing my habits the past three years my spending habits must to change.

Whenever I read books, journals, or blogs from people who are talking about finances they are RICH. Which is why it makes the un relatable to me. I have never been rich but it was so much easier to save money when I had more money. The goal is to look back this time next year to see how far we’ve come and know we CAN and DID budget while making cents.

Why a blog about finances? I have been asked this question so many times. So I wanted to make sure that my why is known. In 2010 I moved to Mobile, Al where I worked for a title loan company. The company paid decent however, when I realized that the saying “the rich stay rich, by keeping the poor, poor” was what I was doing I HAD to quit. One customers story that I will never forget, it was the breaking point for me. This customer borrowed $5000 on her vehicle to help pay medical bills for her sick child. The principle was $5000 and her monthly interest was $500. She paid $500 for a year, when she received her income tax money she came in to pay the loan off. When she asked her balance she started crying, her balance was $5500 to pay off her loan. $5500! Every month that she came in to pay she was told like all other clients that the $500 payment that she was making was interest only. She was told every month that her principle was $5000. If you don’t know what “principle” or “interest” mean it is easy to not understand why you owe $5500 on a loan that you borrowed $5000 on and had currently already paid $6000 on. She relentlessly paid the loan to get the title back to her vehicle, in total she paid $11,500 in 13 months to borrow $5000. What really bothered me the most was that we were required to hang flyers in communities to advertise. What communities do you think we advertised in? If you said low income-majority black communities. You would be correct. My goal to educate and teach those making cents how to SAVE and how to create generational wealth for their families is my mission. Black children deserve to inherit deeds to lands and homes just like children of other races. You can’t do that without knowledge. Knowledge combined with action will change the future for our next generations.

-Budgeting Cents

Money, this is something that has always been so taboo in many black homes, including mine. As a child money was not discussed much, in front of my siblings and I. I knew what a checkbook was but I didn’t know anything else about it. I knew the bills were paid but I didn’t have any idea of how much things cost. I did know we had lights and I would often hear “turn them lights off, you running my power bill up” we had water but it would often sound like “turn that water off, you running my water bill up!” What have always confused me is why there so much secrecy when it comes to money and how much things cost? People KNOWLEDGE IS POWER. With this blog that is exactly what I plan on giving you. Free knowledge…