Lovecraft Rising

Financial Freedom Account Status: $315.02

Do I really need a budget? I hate, hate, hate budgets. Hate them. I’ve never thought they made sense or were realistic. 

(And I’m not the only one who hates budgeting. I found at least three articles about budgeting with the word “hate” in the title.)

In my mind, budgets don’t hold up to the real world. After all, what happens when your car breaks down and you have to get it fixed? Or your cat needs an emergency trip to the vet? What then? The budget goes out the window. 

And the first module in the Khan Academy financial literacy class I’m taking is about budgeting! Ugh! Apparently, budgeting is Step 1 for achieving financial literacy. 

My Khan Academy class recommends the 50/30/20 rule: 50% for necessities, 30% for discretionary wants, 20% for savings.  

Do I know what those numbers are for me? No, I do not. 

Y’all, I just cannot figure this budgeting thing out right now. I feel like it’s so terribly complicated. And really overwhelming. And I’m already overwhelmed with life, with trying to pay my bills on time, with a literal fascist about to take office in my country…

I’m kinda freaking out, if I’m being honest.

Bottom line (for now): I am not going to commit to a budgeting method. However, as a first baby step, I am going to track my money. All the money in, and all the money out. 

I’ve already been tracking my money in and money out on my bullet journal. 

But now I commit to tracking it more completely and with more intentionality. Since we just started 2025, it seems like an opportune time to get started. Here’s my spreadsheet so far. 

Once again, I am accountable to you. I’ll report back once the month is complete.

What are your thoughts on budgets? Do you keep one? Do you hate them? 

Financial Freedom Account Status: $310.01

Hello, friends. I apologize for the lack of posts lately. I know I just started this blog, and I had great hopes for posting often. However, I had a major mental health episode lately, and my recovery had to come first. Don’t worry–I’m doing okay. I have a lot of support. 

Money Tracking

Now for the fun money stuff! 

My goal for the next year is to eliminate my personal debt. To that end, I have a monthly goal of earning at least $3000. 

I made $2785 in November. That’s less than my goal of $3000, but not bad, considering the circumstances. 

I am tracking my money in and money out. (Mostly. Sometimes I forget. Luckily there are statements and whatnot that help me remember.)

I also track my daily earned money, because it feels good to know what I earned in a given day, even if I don’t get paid for a while. 

(I also track my adherence to Rachel Rodger’s seven money habits, but that’s a post for another day.)

As you can see, I use a simple notebook system. Pen and paper! 

What Gets Measured Gets Managed

Why track my money daily like this? Because what gets measured gets managed. What gets attention gets improved. 

For example, if you track your weight every day, you’re more likely to take action to change that number (if that’s what you desire). If you track calories, you’re more likely to stick to a calorie count. And if you track your money ins and outs, you’re more likely to meet your money goals. 

Want to manage your money? Start paying it more attention. You can use pen & paper like I do, a simple Excel spreadsheet, or try one of the many money tracking apps out there. Experiment until you find a method that works for you. 

Money is like Friendship

I don’t always do the best job of paying attention to my money. In some ways, money is still scary to me. I don’t like checking my bank accounts. I don’t like looking at my credit card balances. But what gets measured gets managed. I force myself to look at my money.

I must pay attention to my money in order for it to grow. It’s like a friendship. If you want to be friends with someone, you spend time with them, right? If you don’t spend time together, you’re probably not friends. Or at least not good ones. 

I want to be good friends with money. Therefore, I spend time with it.

My Challenge to You

Do you struggle to look at your money? Is it scary, like it is for me? (Maybe I’m just a weirdo, but I don’t think so. At least not about money!)

Here’s my challenge to you: Look at your bank balance daily. That’s it. You don’t have to change anything, move money around, nothing. 

Just look at the balance. Less than one minute, and you’re done. 

What is the point of this? By looking at your bank balance, you’re exposing yourself to your fear. Over time, it will get less scary. It’s like anything else that’s scary at first–you get familiar with it, and it becomes less scary. 

You’re also spending time with your money. You’re starting to become friends. Bit by bit, you’ll get more comfortable together. 

And I’ll do this too. I just looked at my bank balance. Phew! I’m glad that’s over.

If you enjoyed this post, please leave a comment. I would love to hear from you. 

Financial Freedom Account Status: $310.00

If you’ve come to my blog, you probably know that my goal is to achieve $2 million in savings in 10 years.

Do I have a plan for getting to $2 million? 

Sort of. 

Given my current circumstances, I’ll need about a year to clear my current debts. So after that, I’ll have nine more years to reach $2M. 

I worked with ChatGPT to figure out how much I need to save/invest to reach $2M in ten years. We started with the assumption that I would be spending the next year focused on debt elimination. 

I also asked it to progressively increase my contributions, so that I wouldn’t have to try to save a zillion dollars right away. This will buy me time to figure out how to earn more money.

Here’s what it came up with:

This is assuming a 7% return on investment, which Chat kindly tells me is average. (SoFi and Money with Katie agree; this looks to be a commonly accepted average return for the stock market.)

In the first year (after debt elimination), I “only” have to save $10,000. In the second year, it goes up by 75% to $17,500. And so on, up to a whopping $879,639 in Year 9, to reach the target of $2M.

How the heck am I going to earn that kind of money? No idea yet. But that’s a topic for another post. 

I’m accountable to you for my progress, so I want you to know where things begin. 

I have a savings account I called “Financial Freedom.” This is what it looks like today:

Yes, you read that right. My so-called financial freedom amounts to a grand total of less than $300. (Slightly less than my $2 million goal.)

But I have to start somewhere. 

I’ve gotten into the bad habit of raiding this account whenever I’m low on cash. 

That stops today. 

From now on, this money will never be spent, not for any reason whatsoever. 

From now on, this account represents my commitment to long-term financial security.

I’m going to start reporting my Financial Freedom account amount every time I post. It will give me incentive to not spend it and consistently add to it. 

I added $5 yesterday, just because. 

I have to be real with you, though. I have credit card debt that is way more pressing than this bank account. So I’ll prioritize releasing that debt from my life before I pour a lot of money into the financial freedom account. 

How much credit card debt? Umm…around $10,000. (How did that happen? A car crash was involved.) At least most of the debt is not incurring interest– I transferred them to cards that have no interest for a year or so. That buys me some time to pay it off. 

I also owe my wife money, in the realm of several thousand dollars. She’s very kind.

So, long story short, financial freedom feels far off from where I stand. 

And yet, I am hopeful, because I am determined to improve my financial situation. I am determined to learn, to grow, and to earn more flippin’ money. Let’s get it. 

I have big money goals. Specifically, I want $2 million. Why $2 million? Because my wife and I can live comfortably on the interest and not have to work. That’s what I call financial freedom.

I desire financial freedom, and I’m not willing to wait long. 

But I’m turning 45 soon, and my current financial situation is, shall we say, poor.

My “retirement fund” stands at a measly $23,000 or so. I’m lucky if I have $1000 in my checking at any given time. My credit card debt situation is lousy. And I owe my wife several thousand dollars. 

Suffice it to say, my finances are a mess. But I am not willing to allow this to continue. 

My goal: $2 million in the bank by age 55. Yes, I am giving myself ten years to achieve financial freedom. 

My goal with this blog is to chronicle my journey to financial freedom. And to show you what is possible. This blog is not a diary. 

By putting my goals in writing, I’m making a promise to take action every day and share both wins and setbacks with you.

I am accountable to you, dear reader. I must take action to improve my financial situation. And I’ll tell you all about what I learn along the way. 

(By the way, I don’t think one just has $2M sitting in a regular savings account. I know just enough to know that doesn’t make sense. But how exactly are large sums handled? We’ll get to that soon.)

A little about me: I’m a queer, white, almost 45-year-old woman. My beautiful wife is named Tanya and we have five cats. Yes, we are your friendly neighborhood cat lesbians! We live in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, in a house we bought a few years ago. 

I’m a freelance copywriter. I earn a living, and not much more than that currently. I love my work…I just need to expand. 

I love self-development. I’m a skeptic, but I lean into “woo woo” stuff like Law of Attraction and the power of affirmations. I’ll definitely be talking about self-development in this blog, in the context of money and finances.

I also want to dig into ethical questions like, “Is it even ethical for me to desire this money when so many people are struggling?” And, “What is an ethical amount of money to have?”

Also, fair warning. I’m pretty damn liberal. I believe women are people, Black lives matter, climate change is caused by humans, science is real, etc. Fascists need not apply. I do not make bones about this. If you are anti-choice, anti-trans, or anti-democracy, then GTFO. 

If you made it past that paragraph, welcome! I am hoping we can be good friends.

Will you go on this journey with me? I’d love to have you by my side.