Tag: enlife

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“EnLife”ing COVID19

Hi EnLifers!

So lots has been going on since I last wrote! I’ve endured another 6 weeks of COVID19 pandemic restrictions with no real end in sight! This has included working from home, managing my youngest child’s learning, continuing my weight loss journey and all while trying to maintain healthy relationships with my nuclear family, extended family and friends! Oh and I celebrated a birthday and my hubby’s 40th!  Over the next few posts, I’ll explore all of these things in more depth and share some of the strategies I’ve used to stay sane and “enlife” the situation! In the meantime, here are the cliff notes!

1) Working from Home – I’m not a stranger to working at home since I began working from home when my first child was born and that was 8 years ago! However, I recently snagged an amazing opportunity that required me to work in an office beginning January 2020. It helped me realize that there are always pros and cons to any situation – for instance, I noticed that I’m able to keep boundaries better working in the office. Outside of the office, I feel pressure to always be available which isn’t sustainable – at least not for me. So, though I can’t say that I’ve completely enlifed the situation…yet, I’m working on it and my strategy is just to simply respect boundaries-start and end on time. Period.

2) Managing Children’s Learning while Teleworking– I have two children-5 and 8 and they have been distance learning since March 16. A few ways we have enlifed the situation to reduce stress are 1) we decided to each be solely responsible for one child so that we didn’t have to keep up with two different approaches since they were at two different schools. I took the 5 year old who is in a Montessori Pre-K. So yeah-that’s been interesting, and I’ll go into more details maybe in my next post when it’s all behind me! School ends May 29! Woo-hoo! 2) I came up with a schedule – a flexible one that worked around the set times that the school had, but gave both my son and I breathing room when something urgent came up at work or my son simply wasn’t having it! 3) I had compassion for myself and my son when days didn’t go as I wanted or expected.

3) Weight Loss Journey –I’ll definitely have a lot to share with you on this in some later posts. It requires some background context, but basically I’ve been on a weight loss and body repair journey since June 2015, but really amped it up when I decided to start training for a body building competition one year after my son was born and competed in said competition in November 2016. Since that time, I’ve always thought I’d get back to competing but have not and in the meantime, gained back 57% (at my heaviest) of weight I lost. However, in January, I recommitted mostly due to said job that required I go back into the office. I was steadily losing a pound a week and then COVID19 hit and totally disrupted my groove – which also included walking to work each day! But I refuse to gain the COVID15, so I’ve still been working at it and still losing about a pound a week – except these last two weeks of birthday gluttony! Enlife hacks you ask?! Expend more calories than I take in. I’ll share with you later what all that entails.

I think the biggest, greatest blessing COVID19 has unveiled is connecting virtually with friends which I’d mostly have to do anyway as I live now live far from most of them now. We occasionally text, but we hardly ever took out time to do video chats which personally lift my spirit a whole lot more! It’s been so nice to see their faces, hear their stories, and just be there for each other encouraging, relating, and inspiring one another. I hope that part continues after COVID19 is a distant memory!

Well, that’s what I’ve been up to in these COVID19 times for the most part. You know money stuff is always in the background too, so I’ve got some new developments in that department as well that I can’t wait to share later with you.  What about you?! Please share what you’ve been up to lately and any topics you’d like me to cover in my future posts! Thanks!

MK

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COVID19 EnLife Tips

Hello EnLifers!

Happy Easter to those of you that celebrate!  It’s been three weeks since I posted last and man what a change a few weeks can make! Everyone is under some kind of house arrest basically trying to stay COVID19 free and/or not infect others! And it’s wreaking havoc on our economics as a nation and personally! I’m very grateful that my husband and I are both still able to work and I feel for those that are unable to support themselves and their families. So this post is dedicated to ideas to help us all stay sane (or shall I say EnLife!) and help one another based on my life experiences these past few weeks!

  1. Schedule time to video with your loved ones! I’ve had three 1+hour video chats just this week! Seeing people has been key to boosting my mood and feelings of connectedness!
  2. If you’re looking for ways to help others, here are a few I’ve run across or have heard from others I’ve talked to –
    • If you pay for personal services that local small businesses or solopreneurs regularly provide like haircuts/ maintenance, house cleaning, or food-you can continue to pay those providers even if you aren’t receiving those services-to help them weather this storm. One of my friends did this and it inspired me to do the same!
    • Buy gift cards from local businesses. It helps to provide them some revenue to continue paying operating costs such as employees or leases.
    • Work with your local school to either donate food gift cards or food to local school or community banks to help those families that normally rely on school meals or for those that have lost jobs and are struggling to make ends meet.
  3. Use the time to slow down or complete projects you normally don’t have time for. I actually started working on my taxes though I know we have the extension until July 15-that way I won’t wait until the last minute (AGAIN) to do them. This gives me plenty of time to stretch out the work and not stress about it so much!

If you have any ideas, please share them in the comments section below! We’re all in this together!

MK

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Happy Leap Day 2020!

Hi EnLifers! I’m back! I decided February 29, 2020 would be a great day to take a LEAP back into blogging and EnLife in general! I’ve been pretty busy since I last posted back in September 2018! I relocated my family to another state and started a new venture in my day work! I love personal finance, but I also love all things Life-talking about things that we experience in hopes that it will help someone else! And a lot of times, these things can still relate to personal finance in some way. So my plan is to increase my viewership and listenership with multiple platforms. I am going to start a Facebook Group and a YouTube Channel to just share what’s going on and keep this going. Today’s post will just be an update of all of the various personal finance & general life topics that I’ve encountered since I was here last and I’ll plan to go more in depth in later posts. You can look forward to the following posts regarding:

  • Interstate moves
  • Mental Health
  • Couples Finance
  • Financial Advisors
  • ROTHs
  • Taxes
  • Financial Literacy & Resources

My plan is to post 1-2 times a month and also link you to other resources in the EnLife portfolio. If you have any other suggestions about topics you’d like me to explore, please leave a comment. Also please subscribe to receive notifications of new posts!

Thanks for joining me on this life and financial journey!

MK

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Buy the Darn Holiday Cards! Achieving Financial Balance during the Holiday Season!

Hi Enlifers! Happy Holidays! Speaking of holidays, we had an unexpected snowstorm the other day – well kind of unexpected-the forecast said snow, but I thought-“oh-it’ll just be a dusting” and we ended up with a complete Winter Wonderland! This unexpected spill of the white stuff resulted in some much appreciated time with family and our neighbors! Which leads me to this post. What’s most important during the holidays and I would argue all the time? People and Relationships! Goes back to what one of my favorite personal finance consultants, Suze Orman, used to say – “People First, Then Money, Then Things”. So over the last couple of weeks, I’ve been trying to come up with a holiday spend plan aka budget. I’ve been very sensitive to spending unnecessarily and questioning EVERY purchase lately as I work intentionally toward a minimalist lifestyle and financial independence. Whenever I look to purchase something, I usually evaluate the purchase with these two questions: 1) Do I really NEED this or WANT this? AND 2) Do I have something already that I could use to accomplish the same goal that I want to achieve with this purchase”. Now, I have to say that this combo has really been working for me lately – It has really sparked my creativity with things! For example, we have a kitchen drawer that won’t close, so in order to fix the problem, I was looking to purchase a new drawer assembly, but instead I decided to try an idea using some magnets and super glue I had already and lo and behold, it worked! and I spent $0. Take THAT Amazon shopping cart! And just yesterday, I was in the market for some all-purpose cleaner for the kitchen and just decided to fill up my previous bottle with a mix of water, dish detergent and splash of bleach. Works like a charm!!  BUT as I have contemplated the holiday expenses, I haven’t been feeling so great about some of the initial money saving decisions like nixing the holiday cards we normally send out every year (I figured it could save me time AND money) or staying home to save on travel or actually not giving gifts at all!  The funny thing is that yesterday, spending time  and having fun with friends and family made me think of the ONE thing I hadn’t considered in my holiday expenses…..Joy!. Would this purchase bring me joy? Would it bring joy to others? Wow. Eureka! Though I could definitely save some money by not sending out holiday cards this year, it did not sit well with my spirit. That normal high I get when I save money did not equal the joy  that this purchase would bring.  We’ve been sending holiday cards every year since we got married and I always imagined that my future self would one day put each year’s card together in a collage and see how we’ve changed and grown over the last 20 or 25 years. What a gift that would be. I’d hate to look back and see one year missing because I chose money over memory making. So I decided to buy the darn cards! Now I didn’t do it in the same way as I had in previous years-spending $150 or more in cards and postage, but instead I opted for less expensive photo cards which doesn’t actually affect my joy quotient and will be about one third of the historical costs including postage! I found the balance of spending less and experiencing joy. I’m geeked and happy as I’ll have a card for 2017 and all that 2017 represented (like starting this blog) and hopefully put a smile on some of my family and friend’s faces that have come to expect this yearly goody! So in closing, I urge you to choose balance-choose joy during the holiday season! Enjoy the season-Enhance your life-Buy the darn holiday cards! #enlife

In Love & Joy!

MK

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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

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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