How I Went from a Girl with a Serious Shopping Problem, To a Working Girl with Multiple Sources of Income and a Savings Plan.

I am a strong believer of the saying, “Shopping is the best form of therapy.”
Getting paid on a Friday and going out to blow off my check on that same weekend became an
extremely bad habit of mine. If I had the money visible to me, I knew it was mine. I earned it; I
have the right to spend it. This mentality haunted me throughout my teen years until I learned to
realize what money is actually worth and how I could use the money I had and turn it into more.
The things you are not taught in a traditional educational curriculum are investing, creating
retirement accounts, learning what passive income is and how to start. These are all major
components of a successful life; especially as young female entrepreneur like me. As someone
who managed to always equally balance working, going to college, and having a social life,
learning how to do these things wasn’t something I had access to.
I opened up my first 401k account in 2019 when I started a new job, which would automatically
take a percentage out of my check and put it into that account. Of course, at the time it upset me
that I wasn’t getting the entirety of my check however, knowing it was going to benefit me in the
future and seeing how much I accumulated over time made it worth it. I feel like my money was

finally going to some good use. Once I noticed how easy it was to let a few dollars a check go
every week, I figured saving a few more dollars of my check couldn’t be too hard.
In college I began a small side hustle. With the money I had saved up I took a nail course, bought
all my supplies, and would post my work and progress on social media. Once I began making
money from doing nails, I easily made up for all I spent in supplies and courses and began
making profit. I did all this while still working a traditional hourly pay job. A few other side
hustles I did during this time were babysitting, dog sitting, and selling my used clothes on Depop
and Poshmark.
Once I was making a comfortable amount of money, I began reading books on budgeting,
saving, and financial advice. I was able to get off to a good start in saving money instead of
unnecessary shopping. The best way to get into this mindset is to think about it like this, “If these
shoes I want are $200.00 and I get paid $20.00/hour, I am spending 10 hours of my own labor of
these shoes.”
Putting things in the perspective of hours of your time instead of just money, will limit your
unnecessary spending habits. Once I began doing this consistently, I watched my savings
accounts grow immensely overtime.