Hey, I’m Alexis!
and i’m so excited to help you master your money once and for all!
I’m a married work-at-home mom of three young boys. We own a house in our favorite small town, have a solid savings, no longer live paycheck to paycheck, and are truly living our best lives.
But it didn’t start out that way!
In 2013, my husband and I were married, young, struggling, college students. We lived in a tiny little two bedroom apartment. He worked two full time jobs plus did military reserve one weekend a month in order to finish putting me through school. Money was tight, tensions were high, and our relationship and health were suffering.
Fast forward to 2015. We had been fortunate enough to inherit a small, mortgage-free, home from his dad. My husband had landed a full time job working in the tech department at the college we graduated from, and I was working full time as well.
Things were a little less chaotic and stressful, but we still just didn’t have peace around our finances. We had debt, we were living paycheck to paycheck, and we were hoping to grow our family in the near future. We had to figure out this money thing.
I tried every tool and system out there and nothing worked for us. There were gurus telling us to put $1,000 in savings and then cut out all the extras to pay off our debt as quickly as possible. And it all sounded great, but in reality, it just wasn’t working in our lives.
Were we supposed to give up everything fun and meaningful and just live on rice and beans for as long as it took? That may be possible if you could feasibly pay off your debt in under two years – but we were looking at 7 to 10 years to be debt free even with our best efforts. There was no way I was going to put my life on pause in order to pay off debt! There had to be a better way.
And that’s when I found You Need A Budget (YNAB). Using their money management methods and software, we were able to put a plan in place that allowed us to set reasonable goals and still be able to live our lives. No impossible, soul sucking baby steps. No too-good-to-be-true gimmicks. Just plain old good money management for normal people like me (and you)!
And that’s exactly what budget coaching is all about.
Not everyone has the means to throw everything they have towards a debt payoff plan, set aside thousands in savings in a short amount of time, or work two (or three) jobs to get ahead.
Listen, I’m not here to teach you how to get rich or build some lavish lifestyle. I’m here to help you take control of your finances so you can live a normal, comfortable life today. You don’t have to put your life on pause or sell everything you own. Sure, paying off debt and having financial security are important, and I’ll teach you how to work towards that, but it should never come at the cost of your mental or physical well-being.
So what does a comfortable life even look like?
One fall my boys and I were shopping for new winter coats. We picked out what they liked, and picked up a few other things while we were at the store. We went through the checkout and paid, then we went home.
It wasn’t until my husband asked me how much the coats cost that I realized, I had never even looked at the price. Not once did I stop during our shopping trip and check a price tag or think to myself, “Can we afford this?” I knew that, whatever the cost, we had the money to cover it.
And it was that moment when I realized we had reached our goal.
It’s not that we’re rich. (We’re not). It’s not that we somehow hacked the system. (We didn’t). No, we just finally figured out how to live a comfortable life with the resources we have. And that feeling is life changing.