Know Your Blogger Series

Budget Life List

When the country went into a pandemic induced lockdown, I decided that was a good time to create a blog. The irony was that I didn’t particularly enjoy writing and I wasn’t particularly good at it. The fact that I started something that I didn’t enjoy and wasn’t very good at, says something about my mental state!
My blog is now what my subscribers want to read about, stories that dive into my financial journey and my various life list excursions.
Check out our Q&A with Budget Life List here.

Follow the financial journey of Budget Life List.

Each week at Personal Finance Blogs, we publish interviews from amazing bloggers from the personal finance space. This week, we are featuring the blog, Budget Life List.
During these weekly features, we are hoping to provide a way for you to interact and learn more about different blogs in the personal finance space.
Below, you can read more about the story behind Budget Life List, learn about the author, and learn personal finance tips from Budget Life List to help you improve your financial situation.
A big thanks for Budget Life List for this interview! Now, we will turn it over to the author for this interview.

Tell us about Budget Life List

The mission for my blog has changed a lot. It began with trying to help people with their finances. However, after doing some training and surveying my subscribers, turns out they don’t care about that! Awkward!

My blog is now what my subscribers want to read about, stories that dive into my financial journey and my various life list excursions.

What makes you and your blog unique?

I may be rich in experiences but I have made poor financial decisions.

It turns out, I am good at making smart life choices like joining the military, completing a Bachelor of Science degree, and becoming a Park Ranger.

But, I am equally good at making poor financial decisions like cashing out my retirement account, waiting until unemployment to start a budget, and believing that I would never be able to understand the stock market.

Budget Life List has become a way to share this journey. The good, bad, and (at times) really ugly.

What does “being good with your personal finances” mean to you?

Getting an A+ in personal finances means having a plan for my money and moving it towards that goal.

For years, I was a fiscal failure. The lowest point was using my retirement account as a savings account. At the time, I knew this was not a good look but it was years before I realized just how big a mistake it was.

Since those dark days, my financial plans have included a fully-funded emergency account, retirement contributions at 15%, and setting aggressive goals for my travel and investment accounts.

There is a chance I may not achieve my goals. However, I will be much closer to success, just by having a plan and working towards it.

What are some habits you practice to keep your personal finances in order?

For the longest time, my budget was how I tracked my financial success.

I use percentages to dictate everything from gas to retirement contributions. I continue to fine-tune my budget system as I read and learn more about personal finances. This little color-coded spreadsheet has helped me to stay on track with saving and spending.

Recently, I started tracking my net worth. It was a pain to get it started but I am sure glad I did! I love tracking my numbers and seeing how my wealth grows every month. Rarely does my growth look like leaps and bounds but it feels like I am winning the adulting game.

What are your three articles people should read to get to know you and your message better on your site?

I wrote a love letter to my budget but I didn’t always feel that way about it. There are a few awkward moments, like how I have been in a relationship with my budget longer than some friendships. But awkwardness aside, my budget is the reason for my financial success even with a low government wage.

I quit my job during the pandemic and it was the best decision I made in 2020. I have quit plenty of jobs before but this time it was made extra interesting because of Coronavirus. Luckily, financially, and personally, it was the best decision I have made in a long time.

I have a net-worth obsession that has been giving me all sorts of new insight into my finances. Like seeing my net-worth increase $6,000 in a month, I had no idea my finances were doing this kind of dance until I started tracking it!

What’s an area of your life which has benefited from improving your personal finances?

My financial confidence has reached level: Wonder Woman.

This super-powered confidence has come from years of researching, training, and winning financial battles. Along with moving my financial journey forward, I have been able to help friends and family through my hard-won experience. This makes the whole process seem worth the fiscal scars.

Have there been any areas of your life which have suffered?

I don’t enjoy conflict, so the fact that I have had to justify my frugal lifestyle to my family, friends, and husband, has been less than ideal. However, in some instances, those hard conversations have led to positive changes in their finances too.

In your opinion, what should you do first? Pay down debt, or invest?

It depends on your goals.

My husband and I are in our 30s and the only debt we have is our mortgage. Our goal is to pay it off early but we also want to build wealth for an early retirement.

For a while, we were using any extra money to pay down our principal. However, some of our investments have been doing well, much better than our refinanced mortgage at 2.25%.

Lately, we have been focusing more of our extra money on these investments instead of our debt. We still make our bi-monthly payments and occasionally throw extra money at our principal but not as aggressively.

If we had credit card debt that was at a double digit interest rate, we would tackle that first. Any debt that has a higher interest rate than what we are making in the stock market, is not going to set us up for financial success.

In your opinion, what’s better? Focusing on increasing your income, or focusing on decreasing your expenses?

I focus my efforts on decreasing expenses.

If all the stars aligned and I was suddenly able to retire tomorrow, do you know what I would do? I would be a Park Ranger.

Fun story: I am currently a Park Ranger. Being a Park Ranger is my dream job because I get paid to geek out about nature. People enjoy my “geek out about nature” show. It makes me feel like I am making a difference in all the right ways: that I am helping people to discover (or encourage) their passion for nature.

As with any position, there are drawbacks and for a Park Ranger, it’s the pay. I could retire faster if I found a higher-paying job but I would have to give up being a Park Ranger too. Instead of dumping my dream job, I focus on decreasing my expenses because that feels like the only real option I have.

Do you have any financial mistakes you’d like to share, and how have you grown from these mistakes to improve your personal finances?

My biggest financial mistake was that I cashed out my retirement account.

I used my retirement account like a savings account. It was a poor life choice on many levels. Even after cashing it out, it would be another 5 years before I started working with a budget and trying to figure out my finances.

My budget was the one who introduced me to the fabulous world of finances. I was trying to figure out ways to create a leaner budget which forced me to read more about personal finances. Initially, it was unpleasant.

After a while, I began to enjoy reading this nonfiction genre and somewhere along the way, I began devouring everything related to personal finances. When I began enjoying the learning process is when I experienced a major shift in my mindset.

I don’t feel fiscally insecure or ashamed anymore, I feel powerful because of my knowledge and what I have been able to overcome.

Why do you believe learning about money and caring about personal finance is important?

When I had very little knowledge about personal finances, I made foolish mistakes with my money. I didn’t know any better but more likely, I didn’t care. I didn’t have goals. I’m sure my thoughts swirled around, “Why care about financial failure when I don’t care where I am going?”

It wasn’t until I was at a very low point in my personal life, that I realized that my success is tied to money. Learning more about money and using those skills has changed every aspect of my life, from how I spend my free time up to the legacy I want to leave.

It has been a wild journey but I can honestly credit all my financial success to learning and caring for my finances. Perhaps that is what my story interesting; smooth seas didn’t make me a financially skilled sailor.

How You Can Contact Budget Life List for More Information

You can learn more about Budget Life List at https://budgetlifelist.com/.

Thank you for reading this interview, and thank you, Budget Life List, for providing us with some great personal finance tips!