Author: Sincerely Angie

Mother’s Day Blues

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A mother, by definition, is:

Noun: a woman in relation to her child or children.

Verb: 1. bring up (a child) with care and affection. 2. give birth to.

Literally one of a few things that every human being has, is a mother. It could be a biological mother, adoptive mother, spiritual mother, mother figure, god mother, step mother, mother in love or mother in law. There is a woman in our lives that has birthed us, nurtured us, loved us or raised us.

Today, we give thanks to those women. No one is perfect at everything and there is no rule book to being a parent. Most mothers do what they saw their mother’s do or what they knew to do but I believe that everyone did what they could.

In the eyes of some children, teens or now adults, what their mother did could’ve been better. My mama for sure did what she could. For that, I am grateful. I focus on the positive things. We were never hungry, without clothes or a roof over our head. She is 77 years old. I’m grateful she’s still here and able to live independently and without any assistance.

I saw a video yesterday on Instagram, asking if you came back in another life, would you want your mother to be your mother again. My answer is complicated but simple. If I want to be me in another life, she would have to be my mother again. Everything about her and my childhood made me who I am, and I absolutely love me so…

I’ve always mentioned that I didn’t grow up with love, being shown love or even been told “I love you” unless there was at least alcohol or beer around. Even still, I can count the number of times it was told to me.

As I mentioned, she did what she knew to do and she did what she could. I’m grateful for her. When I become a mother, I will do a lot differently. My child will be conceived in love, showered with love, shown love, told love, and will know the truth of God’s love for us all.

So, happy Mother’s day to each mother and mother figure. Keep doing your best and if you can do better than your best, do that. You are literally changing someone’s life. I’m grateful for my mother and our relationship is fine. I only wished that the relationship was different, better. So this is my mother’s day blues because I’m grateful for my mother and I’m still praying for the day to become a better mother to my child than mine was to me.

Sincerely,

Angie

Forty Lessons I’ve Learned in 40 Years

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With age comes wisdom and no truer words were ever spoken. It’s been said that age is a construct and it’s just a number and I agree that it’s just a number. I don’t feel a day over 25. I feel like I look 25. My mindset is old enough to grant me wisdom and young enough to keep up with the times. I often sing Jay-Z and Beyoncé’s Forever Young when I think of age. You’re only as old as you feel. I know 75+ year olds that move around better than 30 year olds and I know 30 year olds that look and act like 60 year olds. You’re only as old or young as you feel!

Over the last few years, I have been focusing on self love, self awareness, peace, stepping out of my comfort zone, trying new things and letting go. In all of that, I’m learning a lot. A lot about myself, life, people, what’s important and what’s not important. Enough of the small talk, let’s get to the lessons.

Most of the things that I have learned has definitely been cliché but as you get older, you understand and respect the clichés. Mainly, because they’re true.

  1. Seek God. He never leaves us, we stray away from Him. When you seek Him out, He will speak to you.
  2. People are exactly who they say they are. They will also show you who they are. Believe them the first time.
  3. Make the days count, don’t count the days.
  4. If you really want to, you will. If they really want to, they will.
  5. Give freely way more than you receive and you will receive more than you give.
  6. Money isn’t everything but when you don’t have a lot of it, money is everything.
  7. Your reputation does precede you. Someone is always watching, even if you don’t notice them.
  8. When you love yourself, it shows in what you do and what you allow.
  9. Credit score can determine if you get the life that you want or the life that is given to you.
  10. Being tight fisted or close handed doesn’t give you room to receive.
  11. Happiness is truly an inside job.
  12. Peace is attainable. Life is for the living.
  13. The best place to start is small. Small steps lead to bigger ones.
  14. There is beauty in everything and a lesson in everything.
  15. Trusting God is the hardest easiest work you’ll ever do.
  16. Just do it. Whatever you want to do, do it! Anything is possible.
  17. Rest/naps are blessings to your mind, body and spirit.
  18. No matter what you do, it’ll never be good enough for someone. You can’t please everyone.
  19. If you always do what you want to do in/at the moment and what feels right to you, you’ll never have regrets.
  20. Trust your gut, intuition, mind and heart. At least one of them has never led you astray.
  21. Everyone is dealing with something. It’s not always personal.
  22. You have the power to change your life with your thoughts, words and abilities.
  23. How you view you is not how everyone else views you.
  24. Feelings aren’t facts but feelings are valid.
  25. It all works out at some point. Everything is connected. It all lines up in the end.
  26. We never give ourselves enough credit. You’re actually better at something than you think.
  27. Everyone isn’t a hater, jealous or envious. Their admiration is just misplaced.
  28. Let it go. Majority of the time, it’s not worth the time you spent worrying about it or holding on to it.
  29. Some people will hurt you and not think twice about it. Heal and appreciate the lesson learned.
  30. Accept and respect people for who they are and give them grace for who they are not.
  31. Take pictures to remember the moment but don’t forget to live in the moment and take it all in.
  32. Traveling exposes you to a whole new world, literally!
  33. Save your money now so that later, your money can save you.
  34. You are born with relatives, and you can choose your family.
  35. Remain solid even when everyone around you may be fickle.
  36. Think before you speak so that you can say what you mean and mean what you say.
  37. Take care of you, your body and things and they will take care of you.
  38. Perspective is the key to a positive life.
  39. Trusting God, being obedient and tithing are the cheat codes to a beautiful life.
  40. Life is everything that you make it. Make it beautiful. You’re in charge of it.

There are many more lessons but these, I feel, are the best for this time in my life.

Here’s what I got for my birthday! Thank you to everyone who blessed me with something.

Sincerely,

Angie

NBA Angie (Never Broke Again Angie)

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Vow to Never be Broke Again

Do you have a “broke” number? If you’re not familiar with what a broke number is, it’s basically a number that you get down to in your finances, where you start to consider yourself broke. It’s a number that should scare you. I also talk about this in a recent podcast episode here.

I found out in 2014 that my broke number was $10,000. In 2011, I left a job that I had been on for 7 years and started a new one 4 months later in 2012. During the 4 months I wasn’t working, I was living off of my savings. The new job paid me significantly less than my previous job, so I was still using my savings to supplement the deficit. After 2 years of living off of my savings, I was approaching a number in my savings account that scared the ish out of me. Before reaching that number, I knew that’s where I was stopping. Because as I was approaching it, I would get nervous thinking about it. That’s when I started to make changes. I downsized as much as possible and I was able to maintain my broke number without touching the savings account for a few years.

Slowly but surely and in very small steps, I started to add money to increase my savings. You can see the growth in my blog posts in the budget tab. I went from saving $2, $5, $15+ dollars at a time, to saving $200, $500, $1,500+ at a time. I went from praying to be able to save $10,000 to saving $10,000 in almost two years, then to saving that in less than one year.

Vowing to never get that close to only having $10,000 in my savings, to being able to save $10,000 in less than a year, only came from the feeling of not having that security. I learned a few things during a span of 5 years that helped me to grow. Since then, my “broke” number has changed and that change came in 2018. That means it took me about 7 years or more to learn my finances, grow my finances and to get comfortable with a much larger “broke number”.

Here’s what I did:

  • I started paying the full 10% of my tithes.
  • I wrote down everything and really learned who I was financially.
  • I elevated each time I reached a goal.
  • I took a deep dive into my finances and learned them inside out.
  • I set many goals, big and small.
  • I pushed myself and always strived for a bigger goal.
  • I sacrificed and had to practice discipline.
  • I took advantage of any thing free, points and programs that rewarded me with free money. (Rakuten, surveys, loyalty programs, receipt programs, etc.)
  • I counted every penny and knew where every penny was supposed to be.

If you’re reading this, it’s my hope that this post inspires change if you need it or motivation. This post is not to brag or boast. We all have a journey, and it took me nearly 10 years to get to this place. I vowed to never get close to my broke number again, and if life did happen and I got close to it, I know exactly how to recover it all again. NBA Angie!!! Happy budgeting!

Sincerely,

Angie