NBA Angie (Never Broke Again Angie)

Sincerely Angie2 Comments

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

Nouns of the Week

Sincerely AngieLeave a comment

In honor of “Love Day”, here are a few nouns that I’m loving. My current favorite person(s), place and thing.

Person(s)

Toya and Yannie

I met them a little over 20 years ago and my life hasn’t been the same since. Last October, I mentioned to them that I hadn’t truly celebrated turning 40 and they said, say less! Yannie and I flew to Georgia and Toya had an amazing weekend planned for us. I truly celebrated turning forty six months after my actual birthday. I love them too much! We’ve traveled together, partied together and shared our hearts with one another. We are family now so they are stuck with me for life!

Place

Me with a Zulu group that performed a proposal reenactment, in South Africa.

South Africa. I visited Jamaica in 2015 and I had always labeled it as my favorite trip. South Africa 2025 has entered the chat. This trip came out of no where for me. I got a message November 14th, 2024 asking if I wanted to go. I said yes but I was in the midst of traveling and as soon as I got back home and settled, I checked-in about 10 days later to see if the spot was still available. It was nothing but God that saw fit for me to be included. A month and a half later, I was on a 17 hour flight to South Africa. There are no words to describe the feeling but Africa honestly felt like home. It wasn’t any one person, place or thing that made me feel this. It was just the aura, spirit or ambiance of Africa.

Thing

I saw Nina Pool on TIkTok do a dooperoonie for this shower oil. I had never seen or heard of it before so I was going to dupe it. I few days later while in Africa, I saw the L’Occitane store in the mall. I remembered the name from the video but I didn’t stop in the store because I was headed somewhere else. I go into another store (a department type of store) and I see this bottle, it was one of three different bottle sizes and there wasn’t a price on it. I found a sales agent and asked for the price and purchased it. I never even smelled it. Once I got back home, I recorded a video to showcase what I purchased in Africa (video here) and I smelled it and was blown away. I showered with it and I’m pretty sure I will never not use this stuff. It will be a part of my shower routine for ever. Even at the price point it’s at (and y’all know I’m cheap.)

Sincerely,

Angie

5 Year Plan Results…

Sincerely AngieLeave a comment

This post is almost 2 years late. But the 5 year plan I speak of, was made on October 16, 2018 at 2:00p. (It’s written down with the time and date.). Five years later would be October 2023, but I capped it at December 2023. This is the update from that time frame. Listen to the podcast for this episode here!

October 2018 me: I was 34 years old. I was working 2 part time jobs. One I had been employed at for 6-1/2 years. The other was a part-time seamstress job. I had recently started my podcast and just purchased a domain for my website. My goals were to find my purpose, get into a relationship/marriage, have kids, produce budget planners, have a successful podcast and website, pay off my car and student loans, finances in overflow, living in the house of my dreams and donating a lot to help others.

February 2025 me (October 2018-December 2023): Since then, what actually happened was…

  • Credit score went from 715 to 816(highest).
  • Wrote a book and created a journal, never published them.
  • Practiced tithing the full 10%.
  • Saved approximately $60,000+.
  • From $13,000 in credit card approvals/limits to over $100,000.
  • Maintained $0 credit card debt!
  • Paid car off December 2020( 2-1/2 years early)
  • Opened an IRA and maxed it out each year since.
  • Contributed $5,000+ into the stock market.
  • Approximately 50+ blog posts.
  • Over 100+ podcast episodes.
  • Over 100+ YouTube videos.
  • Created budget worksheets for free download.
  • I did get into a relationship but it didn’t last very long.

I didn’t reach all of my goals and I am okay with that because some things are on God’s timing, not mine. His timing is perfect and always worth it. I also accomplished way more than I planned to. Now that I have finally updated y’all, as promised on this 5 year plan, before I turn 41, I will make another 5 year plan.

Stay tuned, because I have to do a 2025 money/saving/budget post. My goal is to always share new tips, tricks and ways to help everyone grow financially. So, make sure you subscribe to this blog.

Sincerely,

Angie