Category: Uncategorized

Posted on

Goals, Goals, Goals!!!

Happy New Year EnLifers! As we get 2018 underway, of course the thought of resolutions and goals are prominent. I’ve been thinking about what my goals will be for 2018. The thing is that I’ve had a hard time really honing in on them and seems a bit overwhelming.  I’ve been thinking about what it is I’m ultimately trying to do and then it hit me. The word intention. I am focused on setting the goals and resolutions, but many times there are just goals but sometimes our goals and resolutions are really about life changes. Habits that we’d like to change and ultimately acquire different habits that improve our lives. So I had to really think about what I want in life and be very intentional about it. If this past year has shown me anything, it is that time is moving seemingly fast! Like seriously, WHERE did 2017 go?! In order to accomplish what I want in the time I want, I have to not only have and set goals, but set up my life to be very intentional about what I’m doing and why. I’ve thought about how I can do that and these things come to mind-

  1. Ask myself overall, what qualities and/or attributes do I want in my life on a regular basis now and in the future?
  2. If I don’t possess these qualities or attributes now, what’s the gap?
  3. How can I realistically get there in the context of my current life. In other words, how can I break the gap down into manageable pieces?
  4. Pick 1-3 of those pieces and be very intentional and focused on those things for this upcoming year. In other words make some goals!

How did this work for me? Here’s a quick overview:

  1. Life attributes I desire: peace, love, health, and freedom. When I think of those things, I always imagine me relaxing on a beach watching the sunset with my husband and 2 boys and not having a care in the world. THE ultimate.
  2. The gap – I have some level of these attributes in my life at times, but not on a regular basis. I’ll spare you the details-that’s another post for later.
  3. Gap breakdown – This took me the longest to work through, but in the interest of time, I came to what those attributes mean for my future self and my current self. Health and financial freedom are two huge things for my future self that I have to put in work now to have in the future. Peace and Love are things that I’d like to cultivate more of in the now and they ultimately affect my overall health as well.
  4. Goals- Ultimately, I decided that I would explore each area and have one goal around each intention. Let’s see how this goes! Peace: I will meditate and connect with God more. Love: I will spend more focused time with my loved ones meaning I will stop trying to multitask and just stop what I am doing to give more focused time even if it’s just a few minutes of hard core presence!  Health: Eat more healthy home cooked meals and kick my fast food habit. Freedom: Save more and spend less so that I can build up enough capital to be financially free in 10-15 years so that I can ultimately choose how I spend my time.

I still need to work on the specificity and actions that will help me to realize my intentions, but I hope this little exercise helps you set some intentions and general goals this year that ultimately help you to enjoy, enlighten, and enrich your life. EnLife!

All the Best in 2018

MK

Posted on

What does Living in Abundance Mean?

Hi EnLifers! I can’t believe it’s Christmas Eve 2017!! Where does the time go seriously? Well, I’ve been sharing my journey and aha moments during this holiday season which I suppose is only fitting since I literally started this blog right at the start of the holiday season-Thanksgiving /Black Friday weekend! Anyhow, today I thought I’d share my ideas and experiences regarding abundance. As you know, I’ve been budgeting, watching my spending, only spending on necessary items and basically trying to balance the spending with the budget so at the end of the month, hopefully what I’ve spent will not outweigh what I’ve earned for the month. Sometimes this process is a little stressful as I’m kind of a recovering OCD perfectionist, so I’m like looking at pennies. Ok-not really, but I am definitely looking at dollars. When an unexpected expense comes up, I’m usually a little freaked out and trying to figure out what I’m going to subtract from in order to balance everything out. But when I receive an unexpected in flux of dollars, I’m like woohoo! Because WHO ever expects to RECEIVE $ unexpectedly? So that VERY thing happened this past week. I received a little notice that some funds were being deposited in our account as some healthcare claims had just been processed (that I’d totally forgotten about) and our Health Savings Plan (maybe I’ll write a post about that in the future) was reimbursing us the co-pays.  In that moment, I was most grateful to God and the universe for always taking care of me-always making sure I have enough. That got me thinking about abundance versus scarcity. How living in scarcity is mostly about fear and living in abundance for me is KNOWING that no matter what, God has my back and I will always have enough. This has been a universal truth for me as I look over my life and not just financially either. Every time I feared I wouldn’t have enough of anything, I always did. Whether it was knowledge to pass a test, intuition and discernment in dangerous situations, and just faith when things looked a little hopeless.  Sometimes, it’s so easy to get bogged down in what you don’t have or worrying how you are going to afford something, and lose the lesson. But as usual, I always get a reminder right at the time I need it and as usual all that worrying was for naught.   I hope that you too can look at your life and find “enough” for I believe that 1) having faith that we’ll be always be ok and 2) discovering what is “enough” are the keys to abundance (more on that later).  We don’t have to live in scarcity if we realize that we already have most if not all of what we need and seek. Sometimes we just have to look a little closer and/or redefine what we are seeking. Please share what living in abundance means to you. Merry Christmas to all!

In Abundance,

MK

 

Posted on

The Holiday Financial Conundrum: 3 Things to Reduce Financial Anxiety During the Holiday Season

So, you’d think by now I’d realize that the holiday season comes the same time every year and I’d prepare more. However, even in all of my debt reducing, budget producing, financial planning wisdom, I seem to end up in the same situation every…single….year! The situation being stressing over how we’re going to get everyone gifts, afford travel, etc. and now we’ve added children to the mix-ONE of which has a birthday at the end of December and doesn’t deserve to be shortchanged for being born during  ♫♪the most wonderful time of the year! ♪♫. So, in an effort to be both teacher and student, I am going to lay out 3 things we can do to ease the potential financial stress this time of year and enjoy what is most important to us – spending time with family, eating good food, giving to others, and just feeling good!

  1. Plan and budget ahead. I tend not to think much about the holidays from February-October. January, I’m usually reeling and recuperating from overspending and vowing not to do it again next year. Then, I pay off the bills, tax time comes and all is right with the world again. Then I’m good until November hits and I start sweating bullets because I’m not prepared AGAIN for the holiday season. This year, meaning sometime between now and the end of January 2018, I am going to plan NOW for the 2018 holiday season. This means that hubby and I will sit down and decide our tentative plans and how much we think it will cost.
  2. Allocate said budget throughout the year. Once we have the budget, we can break it down into 10 months of manageable savings payments to our Holiday piggy bank. So, let’s say we decide to travel, buy all the gifts we desire, and all of that comes to $1000. We divide the $1000 by 10 months and plan to save $100 each month. We would include this as a regular bill payment in our monthly budget and pay to our savings account. Some people would prefer a completely separate account labeled holiday spending etc, whatever floats your boat-the impoartant thing is to save! I plan on using our regular savings account as I know the minimum we try to keep in it, so I know what is above and beyond and can track fairly easily.
  3. Talk about it! I think what get us in trouble many times are the expectations we put on others and ourselves. I truly believe that people that care about you do not want you to have anxiety, go into further debt, etc to get them gifts that they may or may not even like. What our loved ones really want are to connect and make memories that last for years and lifetimes. Let’s renegotiate expectations and social norms. Let’s talk about it. Let’s come up with different expectations! Maybe we pull names instead of everyone buying a gift for everyone? or maybe we decide not to give gifts at all and everyone just spend time together? Or maybe we decide to pull together and go volunteer our time together to helping others less fortunate? There are lots of ideas. We just ultimately have to get over the initial hurdle of bringing it up! More times than not, we find that we are all in the same boat!

I hope these tips are helpful. I’ll check in next year to see how it went! Please share some tips you have for spreading holiday cheer while maintaining financial responsibility & sanity during the holiday season!  As always, continue to enjoy and enhance your life-#enLife!

MK

Posted on

Welcome to EnLife

EnLife is the culmination of years of intention to create a space and community where life journeys and experiences could be shared to help us all enhance and enjoy our lives to the fullest. It began as a way to share my personal finance journey as I was in my late twenties and discovered I was in WAY more credit card debt than I’d realized – ~$38K worth to be exact- and I had to come up with a plan. Fast forward 10+ years and I’m still determined to share the journey in hopes that someone reading it will know they are not alone and it’s possible to overcome debt and live the life you want. I want EnLife to be a place where personal finance tips and info are shared in the context of our whole lives which are dynamic and ever-changing. With that intention, I write this first post as the start of EnLife out loud. Throughout my posts, you will see how I got out of the credit card debt, how I’m working now to free myself and family from student loan and mortgage debt, while exploring ideas of minimalism, mindfulness, and freedom. If there are any topics, you’d like to see and/or share, please share in the comment section below. Thanks for being a part of this journey!

-MK