Financial Education for the Average Joe

Have you ever come across a financial issue as an adult and thought to yourself “How-come I didn’t learn about this in high school? It would’ve been extremely valuable” and then struggled to wade through the information that’s out there to teach yourself. It can be overwhelming. In fact, for young and old folks alike, money management, knowledge, and skills are not always cut and dry. Using myself as a prime example of this, I wish I had taken the time to completely understand the ins and outs of credit cards and the fees involved.

I wish I had a notebook or resource about how to use it intelligently when I received my first credit card. Yes, I got the packet with the fine print, but I didn’t REALLY understand the whole thing. I skimmed it, like I’m sure many young people do. I didn’t understand the terms and so I gave up reading it because it felt so dense. Fast forward to last week. I did a poll of my co-workers and friends on Facebook to find out what they really want to know about money as a millennial. The answers were fascinating and varied. They wanted to know about the mindsets of different generations in regard to the cost of expensive brand name items versus off brand items. They wanted to know about investing. They wanted to know about workbooks and habits for spending and saving…I never thought about that before. It got me thinking: what resources are out there for adults and teens that would answer these questions at an early age? What I found was very interesting…to be continued…

New Beginnings

This ought to be an interesting year. Why? Because we are in 2020…and that reminds me of hindsight being 20/20 vision. Maybe this time we’ll each get it right the first time. There’ll be no need look to the past to correct errors, because maybe this will be our lucky 20/20 not-much-in-hindsight but rather present year. And also, a little tip for 2020: make sure to write out 2020 in full your important documents/checks. It could turn ugly if the wrong person gets a hold of important documents and decides to add a 1 or a higher digit it could create a lot of trouble for you. With that, let’s raise a glass to 2020! Cheers and have a fantastic year! I can’t wait to see what it brings for all of us. New Beginnings

Composing Beauty

Ingenuity, I love that word! It has such a nice ring to it, and such a deep meaning (at least to me). I view ingenuity as an essential skill in creativity, and creativity/ingenuity an essential skill of surviving in this new, digital age. I find it fascinating that one can create a job or a career for themselves where there was nothing before. In today’s day and age the opportunities for money making are endless. One of my inspirations for this exact thing is Lin-Manuel Miranda, internationally famous composer of Hamilton, In The Heights, and a member of Freestyle Love Supreme (who, I’m sure, has many more credits, both famous and not, to his name).

I’m absolutely enthralled by his tenacity, skill, perseverance, and his genius. He literally put himself on the map in the entertainment world. He created something brilliant using just his brains, skills, experience, and a pencil and paper. Not only that, but it’s given other artists the opportunity to be a part of the beautiful, caring community that he’s created throughout this process. He’s even changing the world and peoples’ lives by using his works to support causes that he cares deeply about. That, to me, is ingenuity. It”s creativity. I could write many, MANY more paragraphs about my admiration for him as an artist and person, but I’ll get to that in a later post because I could write a novel on it with my ability to go off on tangents and daydream (although that is not a bad thing).

With technology we have the tools to create new things every day. Heck, this article is new right now. It is not a masterpiece of an article, but it’s being created now, in the moment, and shared. Nowadays we have all kinds of opportunities for financial success, we just have to use our ingenuity to build on them. For example, in the past we couldn’t write something and automatically earn money  within a moments’ notice. Now we can. We couldn’t write a book and have it published on amazon without going through the proper book publishers outside of the company and then selling it…but now we can self-publish books and sell them online. We couldn’t automatically create a video of ourselves performing and broadcast it to the world, thereby gaining fame. Now, we have stars who got their start doing just that on youtube. The opportunities are endless. When you think about it, once you open up your mind and heart to creativity so many ideas can come pouring in, and you just have to work tirelessly at them, with all your passion and heart, to create something that you truly stand by. You don’t even have to create for others. Create for yourself, and your passion, care, tenacity, strength, and genius will shine through and you will find your own success by using inginuity.

Let’s Talk About…Finances and the Different Internet Options Available…

Hello everyone! It’s that time of year again, where we are all recovering from the holiday season energy-wise and financially as well. I hope that everyone had a wonderful time celebrating their respective holidays and traditions, as did I! Now for the nitty gritty: what are you going to do to make back the money you spent on the holidays…that can be quite daunting!

Personally, I have several options in mind, 3 of which I am actively engaged in. I’ve told you about Prosper and how you can be your own bank, but what if you don’t have the money to put up to start an account? Well, luckily enough, the online world is buzzing with opportunities to make money in ways many people never dreamed of, whether it’s a few bucks or an entire income.

Option #1: Put that iPhone to good use (other than beating all of the levels of gummy drop, that is, lol). Many folks are making a side income by becoming couriers. At this point delivery services like Instacart, Postmates, Seamless, etc., are so popular and in such high demand that you can literally apply right from your phone, and sign up in minutes. I decided to try this and I signed up with Postmates just to make a few dollars on the side. I’ve only done a few deliveries so far (I usually do one or two after work a couple of times per week), and that has helped solve the post gift buying blues by adding to my bottom line little by little, without much extra effort. It won’t buy me a shiny, new apartment, but it’s helping with the occasional bill, and I certainly appreciate that! Depending on the order size, I’ve averaged about $7-12 dollars per order, and you can do multiple orders at the same time. Different companies have different requirements to be a courier, but with Postmates you can be a walker, a bicyclist, or a driver! Check it out here, click on the link below, and give it a shot if you’d like to make a few dollars and get some exercise at the same time. Plus, you could make money and save it up to invest in Prosper, and then your small earnings turn into more without doing more work! https://fleet.postmates.com/

Unfortunately, my computer battery is now telling me that I have to go…but stay tuned here for more info about my other two ideas as well…Ciao for now and happy reading!

 

Composing Beauty

Ingenuity, I love that word! It has such a nice ring to it, and such a deep meaning (at least to me). I view ingenuity as an essential skill in creativity, and creativity/ingenuity an essential skill of surviving in this new, digital age. I find it fascinating that one can create a job or a career for themselves where there was nothing before. In today’s day and age the opportunities for money making are endless. One of my inspirations for this exact thing is Lin-Manuel Miranda, internationally famous composer of Hamilton, In The Heights, and a member of Freestyle Love Supreme (who, I’m sure, has many more credits, both famous and not, to his name).

I’m absolutely enthralled by his tenacity, skill, perseverance, and his genius. He literally put himself on the map in the entertainment world. He created something brilliant using just his brains, skills, experience, and a pencil and paper. Not only that, but it’s given other artists the opportunity to be a part of the beautiful, caring community that he’s created throughout this process. He’s even changing the world and peoples’ lives by using his works to support causes that he cares deeply about. That, to me, is ingenuity. It”s creativity. I could write many, MANY more paragraphs about my admiration for him as an artist and person, but I’ll get to that in a later post because I could write a novel on it with my ability to go off on tangents and daydream (although that is not a bad thing).

With technology we have the tools to create new things every day. Heck, this article is new right now. It is not a masterpiece of an article, but it’s being created now, in the moment, and shared. Nowadays we have all kinds of opportunities for financial success, we just have to use our ingenuity to build on them. For example, in the past we couldn’t write something and automatically earn money  within a moments’ notice. Now we can. We couldn’t write a book and have it published on amazon without going through the proper book publishers outside of the company and then selling it…but now we can self-publish books and sell them online. We couldn’t automatically create a video of ourselves performing and broadcast it to the world, thereby gaining fame. Now, we have stars who got their start doing just that on youtube. The opportunities are endless. When you think about it, once you open up your mind and heart to creativity so many ideas can come pouring in, and you just have to work tirelessly at them, with all your passion and heart, to create something that you truly stand by. You don’t even have to create for others. Create for yourself, and your passion, care, tenacity, strength, and genius will shine through and you will find your own success by using inginuity.

My Process

Thank goodness for Starbucks…I’m always brainstorming new business ideas, blog posts, and how to succeed in life! To check out one of my newest ventures please look at etsy.com/shop/millennialpets and “like” my store! You’ll get updates frequently, and access to some FABULOUS deals that are tough to find elsewhere! Plus…if you have any questions about e-commerce and how to run your own store I’ll be happy to help. 🙂

My Process

Thank goodness for Starbucks…I’m always brainstorming new business ideas, blog posts, and how to succeed in life! To check out one of my newest ventures please look at etsy.com/shop/millennialpets and “like” my store! You’ll get updates frequently, and access to some FABULOUS deals that are tough to find elsewhere! Plus…if you have any questions about e-commerce and how to run your own store I’ll be happy to help. 🙂