I know it has been a minute since I last made a post and I apologize for that. The new year has started out a bit chaotically. As soon as I returned to work, the crazy began and has not stopped! I won’t complain though, since I love my job and I love what I do. It has also seen me receiving a raise and this has been most appreciated in every sense of the word, which brings me to one of my all time favorite topics: Finances.
I love finances and I love helping people around me to improve them. To date, I have helped 4 people to improve their finances and financial knowledge exponentially. Financial Planning is actually the degree I am currently working towards right now. Medical is fun and all, but I would rather not do it my entire life if I can help it. I myself have eliminated almost all debt and am on the last steps to financial freedom! These things take time!
There are many different types of witches. Some claim only one type of craft while others claim many paths to their craft. Some people claim to be a celestial witch and work with planets and star systems. They work with the zodiac and alignments. Some claim to be a green witch or kitchen witch and work with plants, roots, and flowers in their craft. Anything that can be grown is there realm. If my best friend were a witch, she would be a green witch. Her house is always alive with plants everywhere and she spends probably 30% of her day in the kitchen happily making new things. If she could live in a green house rescuing dogs all day, she would.
My dominant claim is as a sea witch as most every spell I do is ocean related or has elements of water involved. My home flows with the element of water and much of my self care involves water. However, I also have a few secondary witchy claims that I incorporate into my craft. With that being said, I totally claim one of the many paths to my craft as a financial witch. Is that a thing? It is for me! I obsess over finances so much and do enough spells for financial security. If it isn’t witch craft or writing, it is probably finances. I have many figurines such as the lucky frog and financial trees with evil eyes on it. Little knick knacks for fortune are all over my home. Finances have always been a big concern to me and money has always been a huge source of anxiety for me. With the new year here, I’m sure a lot of people made resolutions or goals for financial improvement or independence and I would love to help with those goals.
According to cardweb.com a total of 190 million Americans have credit cards. The average card holder carries more than seven and the average household owes an outstanding balance of $9,000. This is only credit cards. It is so easy to get a loan these days too. A mortgage, multiple cars, student loans; many people are literally drowning in debt. Finances were never taught in schools and it is left to each person to figure it out unless they have someone financially savvy in their life. Not everyone is that lucky. But new year, new you! A lot of people roll their eyes at this but every day is a new day to make a difference in your future. I have seen a lot of different debt spreadsheets over the years and took elements from each of them. I created a simple, free debt spreadsheet to help you see where your owe, how much you owe, and how much you must pay per month. Feel free to download it and plug in your own numbers! A few years back, my spreadsheet looked much like this one. But now, it has much improved!
I plugged in a few numbers just so you could see how it worked. Assuming you have a house, 2 credit cards, a car, student loans, and a personal loan, you can now see your total debts. You can see how much money per month you are paying out for minimum payments as well as roughly how much interest the bank is making off of you per month. In this case, the bank is making about 619.57 in interest per month at least. If you have medical bills, you can insert those as well as extra student loans, court debt, etc.
Every step you take is growth towards your goals. Originally, I had student loans, a car, and credit card debt. I paid off the loans and car but then my car broke beyond repair and I had to get another car. So I now I was back to car and credit card debt. Finally I paid off my credit card but I still had car payments. Then I had to move for work and it was WAY more financially responsible to buy a house than to rent in my new city. Two steps forward, one step back.
Insert a mortgage and car payment. Then this second car broke a few years after I bought it in a way that it would have cost twice what was left in payments just to fix it. And it happened the same month I closed on my house. So now I have a mortgage and 2 car payments while I pay off a car that does not work and a car that does work. Life is never easy but I feel like that was a slap in the face since it literally turned off while I was going 80mph down a highway about 45 minutes from any real city nearby.
I am a single woman on one income so this is a bit of a tough situation. However, with good financial responsibility, I have only 2 more payments to go on the broken car before I can then address the working car and I wouldn’t have done it if I had not taken an interest in my finances and made the steps needed to do this. The broken car will have been paid off in less than 3 years since I bought it instead of 5 and the new car will, if all goes well, be paid off by this December, a year and a half after having bought it, all while making mortgage payments and putting money in savings. In theory, the mortgage will benefit me in the future and having savings will give me peace of mind.
If my broke ass can do it, I KNOW FOR A FACT that you can too! It just takes some financial responsibility and maneuvering.
I wish every single one of you out there the best of luck! No one wants to be in debt or stressing over deciding which bill they can’t pay that month. The first step to financial freedom is figuring out what you owe and where it your money is going every month. You can’t plan for anything if you don’t even know where your money is going or should be going. Take that first step toward financial freedom and figure out your debts!
From our altar to yours, with love from the sea,
