I’d like to start off with a little back story to explain my why.
I grew up differently than a lot of the people that I’ve met through the years.
I grew up without a dad, and my mom was a small business owner who worked at home, mostly. We lived in rental properties, and we moved every two years during my younger years, and finally settled into a rental house just before I started fifth grade.
I stayed there, in Oregon, until half way through my freshman year. I was a jerk and she couldn’t handle me.
That’s when I moved in with the father I never knew, in New Hampshire. I finished high school there, barely, but he and I never got along, so he took off, again after I graduated.
Many thanks to my parents, I didn’t go to college. They didn’t teach me anything about scholarships or all the things I could have qualified for, to help me get into college. So I went immediately into the working world; restaurants, retail stores, factories, anything that would accept me without a further education. I basically just lived to work.
I quickly became a mother at 23 and really couldn’t provide for her the way I should have. Her father and I were together/married for 14 years and had never accomplished anything. We could barely afford our daily expenses and couldn’t save for her. Money was always an issue and a sense of tension in our relationship.
The house we were given, was falling down around us, but we always had a nice, new car. Our priorities were insanely screwed up.
When I left him, I tried to make it on my own and, boy was it rough. I remember some times when we would go without things that we were used to, because I couldn’t pay the bills. But those were the things that I shouldn’t have prioritized. My rent and our food were always first.
My next relationship lasted four or five years and didn’t help with my finances at all. It should have, but didn’t. He had a large income, but blew it all the time. New cars, motorcycles, tons of concerts, expensive, spur of the moment, trips. You name it, we did it. Oh sure, we had fun, but I was still broke.
When I moved out, the person I hadn’t yet realized was the love of my life, helped me focus on my finances. I spent a little over a year in my own apartment, while my daughter was away at college. Then shortly after Bob moved in, we started house-hacking.
Bob and I didn’t know it was house-hacking at the time, we just needed a bigger, better place to live while we looked for our forever home, and our friend needed help. He and I moved in with our friend who had just gotten a divorce and was saddled with the debt and being alone. We rented from her for about a year and a half and decided to start looking for another house-hack.
When we found this home, it all made sense. The tenant would pay for more than half of the mortgage payment. This was the only way we could afford a home while we were paying off all of our other debts.
Next thing I knew, we were listening to podcasts and discovering the financially independent world. Which led me to you.
Welcome! And thanks for reading.
