Hey, party people! Can you tell I feel a bit more optimistic than my last blog post about my steps to financial freedom? Click here to read more about it. Although the amount of debt has not changed drastically and my numbers are pretty much the same, I feel a bit better today than when I last wrote a blog.
I’m going to warn you, though. Since I haven’t written in a while, this blog post will be long when updating you on what I’ve been doing to achieve financial freedom.
Perhaps it’s because I have a solid plan for achieving financial freedom. Perhaps it’s because I’m taking the appropriate steps to achieving financial freedom. Or perhaps it’s because I got a little bit more sleep?
Regardless, I feel good today, even though I just went over my bills and budget. I have been staying consistent in not using my credit card and tracking my spending.
My second paycheck for the month was $3985. Again, this is minus 20% retirement, taxes, and insurance. When overtime stops at work, I plan on decreasing my retirement to 10%.
My regular monthly bills for this pay period came out to $3,096.57. My expenses outside of my regular bills came out to $2277.06. This included things like travel, restaurants, shopping, pets, savings, and cash.
Travel at $644 and restaurants at $316 again were my highest categories this month. I know, I know, I need to cut these costs way down.
Here’s my breakdown: For travel, I paid for Portland and New York lodging, so I got that out of the way and don’t have to worry about it next month. When I go to New York, all I have to worry about now is food. I don’t plan on shopping.
120 dollars of travel expenses this month was also on Global Entry, which expired on my birthday in January.
For restaurants, it was a bit high because I bought dinner and a cake for my daughter’s 30th, which I think is valid and worth it. I also went to a fancy brunch with my girlfriends on Sunday and spent a little less than a hundred dollars. Again, something I think is worth it since I don’t get to see my girlfriends often.
In total, my monthly bills came out to $5900. All other expenses came out to $2277 for a grand total of $8176! So much money! For this month, my total income from my paycheck and rent of $525 (from kids) came out to $8437. I barely made it!
Before I get into why I think I’ve been feeling a bit more optimistic lately, let me share a very small win that was actually pretty frustrating.
Today, I called my internet company to lower my monthly bill. They were only able to lower it by $10 per month. But a win is a win!
I was on the phone with them for over an hour! They also accidentally cut out my internet. So annoying! Regardless, as annoying and time-consuming it was, I’m happy to be saving a little bit of money every month.
Next, I need to call my phone carrier and eventually talk to my adult children to take over their cell bills. I’m slowly taking it one step at a time in achieving financial freedom.
Okay, I think I know why I feel a bit more optimistic this pay period. It honestly has nothing to do with the numbers I mentioned above, my paycheck, my debt, etc. But it has a lot to do with me and my daughters advocating for ourselves. I’ll start with my experience and then share my kids.
As we all know, the new year began, obviously in January. This meant it was time for my performance review at work. I’m proud to say I negotiated my performance review from successful (which is mediocre) to highly effective. This means I should be receiving a higher percentage for a raise.
A little background: I requested 2 raises before and was shot down both times. Here’s what I learned both times that I didn’t realize until this year. I signed my performance review before negotiating for a higher raise. Once I signed my performance review, I legally agreed to their determination of my performance.
Each year, I would consistently get successful as an overall rating. The scale is exceptional, highly effective, successful, needs improvement, and unsatisfactory. Your rating determines your raise.
It wasn’t until this year that it dawned on me that I should negotiate prior to signing. My coworker had to tell me this because that’s exactly what she did. It may sound like that was a given, but it wasn’t to me.
In 2024, I also created a spreadsheet and added all of my projects, extra work, and additional coverage I completed. During our meeting, I had my boss go first, and he went over his review of my work. When he finished, I acknowledged his assessment by thanking him.
I then requested to go over what I considered to be some of my accomplishments (which I read off the spreadsheet I created with dates and details) that he may not have been aware of. I wanted to be recognized for the extra work I put in and the challenges I overcame throughout the year.
After I went through my list of accomplishments, he made some changes to my performance evaluation. However, my rating was still at successful, and I just needed one more category to change in order to hit highly effective.
Towards the end of our discussion, he asked me how I felt about the overall rating of successful in my performance evaluation. I told him directly that I would like to change the overall rating to reflect highly effective. And I just sat there.
I wanted to fill in the silence, but I had already described to him my successes. I provided him with dates, projects, and details. It was up to him to make the changes in one more category (which he didn’t do initially. Instead, he combined it into one category)for me to reach highly effective. So, I just sat there (for what felt like minutes) in silence until he made the first remark.
He said, “Okay, let me see what I can do.” He made some changes in different categories and got my overall rating to reflect highly effective. I was super stoked! Here I come to achieving financial freedom!
Lol I know I won’t be achieving financial freedom overnight, but any increase in my income will be helpful and welcomed, big or small. Not only do I need to learn how to budget and use money wisely, but I also need to learn how to increase my income. This will be in multiple ways, like learning how to negotiate better pay and finding different streams of income.
I haven’t found out how much my raise will be just yet. Nonetheless, I’m still proud of myself for asking for better.
Here are my 2 cents on negotiating salaries…When I was around 18 or 19 years old, I had a girlfriend who was all about her money. She really inspired me. She was never shy to ask for her worth. And although she was young and may not have had much experience in certain fields, she knew her value professionally with so much confidence.
She always asked for more when she was offered a job, and she never tied anything emotional to money. I, on the other hand, was so opposite to her. I was shy, didn’t want to feel like I was a burden, and wanted to show gratitude for whatever opportunity came my way. This meant speaking up less and accepting the first offer presented to me.
Money was not easy for me to talk about. If I loaned money to someone, I was too timid to ask for it back. I attached a lot of emotional baggage to money. However, at 19, I had 2 daughters to feed and needed to get over my fear of earning more.
I remember my first job at Macy’s, I was making $5.75. However, my coworker was making $7.50 an hour. I was so upset and extremely jealous. I didn’t understand why she made more and was never taught to ask for more.
Thankfully, my friend came into my life at that time. I remember asking her, “How do you negotiate?” And she simply said to me, “Ask if you can negotiate.” “Huh,” I said.
“Yea, just say can we negotiate that?” It was that simple. Of course, at the time, our jobs were pretty simple too. But that helped me open to a world of negotiations. With every job I was offered, I would ask, “Is that negotiable?”
Of course, there were times when I was turned down, but it gave me a better idea of whether or not I wanted to accept the job. Sometimes, I would walk away and get a better offer with another company.
Honestly, I wanted to get comfortable with money and found that it has been a challenging and long journey! I mean, I’m 46, and I still struggle with talking about money.
Having three girls, I didn’t want that to be their norm. I made sure to talk about money and not make it an uncomfortable subject, which brings me to two of my daughters’ recent experiences.
Let’s start with my daughter A. Daughter A is pretty successful when it comes to her professional work and education. She graduated from a top-tier school and was able to pay off her student loans in a short amount of time after graduating. I would consider her to be somewhat of a Type A personality, and I love that for her.
She also has multiple streams of income while holding down a full-time job in marketing. Her other forms of income pertain to marketing since she does know a bit about the behind-the-scenes aspect of it.
Now that I have a painted background on this daughter, let me share her recent journey in asking for more during her performance evaluation.
Wherever Daughter A works, she puts in 1000% effort in what she does. She goes above and beyond at her job to the point where she overworks herself and stresses out.
In her current role in marketing, she is striving for a higher position. She’s been there for about 3 years and has taken on supervisor responsibilities. Needless to say, she pointed this out during her performance evaluation when discussing a pay increase or promotion and was turned down. Daughter A was not satisfied with this answer.
Instead of taking no as her final answer from her manager, she also spoke to the director. Although my daughter was able to speak to the director and provide feedback as to why she deserved a higher raise or promotion, the answer was still a no.
But here’s the thing: I am so proud of my daughter. I’m proud she didn’t let fear or emotions get in her way of asking for more. She also had the courage to speak to the director and gain insight on her next steps.
Her director basically said that she is on their radar, and there’s no need to prove her worth because they already know her great value. This provided my daughter with some respite because, like I said, my daughter tends to overwork herself.
Now, she also has a better understanding of how slow the process is in getting promotions at her work and is considering other alternatives. I’m happy for her because instead of using energy to question anything, she can use her energy to make sound choices on the next steps regarding her career.
There are so many reasons why I’m proud of her. Although the outcome was not one she agreed with, I’m proud that she practiced how to advocate for herself. Something I personally think we all need to learn early on. It only gets easier with more practice.
Especially as women, a lot of us weren’t taught much about money, and for some reason, there seems to be so much shame attached to money. If you were one of the women who learned financial literacy early on, I applaud you. That’s awesome!
In the circle of friends I have, financial literacy was far and few between. Even now, I don’t really talk about money with my friends. They don’t know I have this blog or the amount of debt I have. I mean, my debt is super embarrassing!
But hey, I’m here now and trying to take the appropriate steps to achieving financial freedom.
Okay, moving on to my other daughter. She will be starting a new job in a couple of weeks. After she was offered this job, they discussed her salary. I have been drilling in my girls’ heads to always negotiate and never accept the first offer.
My daughter found out what their max amount offered was and requested that amount. They turned her down, and instead of accepting their no, she negotiated a number in between. Her second request was honored!
When she shared the news with me, she thought I would be upset she didn’t get her initial amount requested. I told her that would never upset me, I try to talk to them about money just so they can get used to asking for more. If the result isn’t that, that’s fine. What I am proud of is their self-advocacy with money.
I explained to her that I want more women to become comfortable with talking about money, asking for more money, and learning about money.
I hope you gain inspiration and insight into these steps, whether big or small, in achieving financial freedom.
In my next journal entry, I want to write about the resources I used to help gain more financial literacy. These resources range from books to podcasts and Instagram influencers. These resources have helped me, and hopefully, they will help you.
As always, thanks for reading.
Love, Sutivi.
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