Budgeting Tips for Beginners Most of us want to budget but budgeting seems complicated and time consuming. I even found myself looking for apps to make it simple but could never find the perfect app. With most apps you have to link your bank account and put a lot of energy into categorizing purchases to find out how much you spend where to adjust your life in a particular area. That seemed to be more time consuming than just figuring it out on my own. I took some time out and said to myself how can i make this easy enough for me to actually want to do it but accurate. First thing I decided to do was to break my income into three accounts; bills, saving, and spending. Then I had to figure out how much I needed to put into each account. So boom, I needed to know…
The Me Too movement has opened up the conversation about sexual harassment, rape and rape culture. For centuries, women have been taken advantage of by men, but there is a group we never discuss and their contribution to rape culture and sexual harassment. Oftentimes, women forget that they too can be predatory and not solely the victim. As a lesbian, straight women have been predatory to me and I’ve witnessed them do it to other lesbians. My friend Mimi said, “They always become predators once they hear I am gay, from the touching to the rubbing and it’s always I’ve never kissed a girl before, they think it’s okay because they are also women but the shit is mighty uncomfortable. I’ve had women literally kiss me without my permission because it’s what girls do.” Straight women believe that it is harmless to push their fantasies on lesbian women but it…
Growing does not come without its pains. As we get older we forget the lessons we have learned from our adolescence apply in our adulthood. For many of us life changes are normal and frequent, oftentimes more frequent than we would like but with life changes comes associated challenges and uncomfortabilities. We are cornered into making hard decisions, uncomfortable choices, and finding strength or even courage when we don’t believe we have it. When a lot of these changes happen in a short period of time, they resemble growing pains much like when your body or bones would ache during a growth spurt. This year has had an eventful turn of events that would close out the decade in a way that was the most inevitable. In the early years of the decade, the summer of 2012, I had a conversation with one of my close friends which would be…
Over the last year and a half I have been pursuing the completion of my collegiate degree. Just know many celebrities had their big break well into their 30’s and even 40’s. You do not have to follow the standards that society may push about when you should do something. Just know it’s never too late if you really want it. Recently I had to write a college entrance essay for Belmont University and this is what I had to say: If life is rooted in how we classify who we are or even by statistical findings we would live in a world where our choices could be predicted and automated. Despite knowing statistics and classifications hold value, I respectfully disagree that they define the course of my life or who I am. Statistically, the course of my life would look very different, I would have chosen a different college…
It’s the new year and I know many people try to start the new year with a good financial plan. I know paying off your debt could be in your plan to reach your goals but you should validate your debt before paying the debt. Send the letter below via certified mail, which will notify you that the letter was received, to the debt collector. They have 30 days with a 15 day cushion to respond, if they do not, use the certified receipt to dispute the debt on your credit report. If they respond and they cannot validate the debt, use that letter to dispute the debt on your credit report. If they happen to respond validating the debt, you should then start with negotiating payment arrangements. Name Street Address City, State Zip Code Collection Company Name Street Address City, State Zip Code Phone RE: Validation of Debt Letter…
I have several reasons why I do not want to be monogamous, which I will explain further into this but first let’s think about the information and history of the idea of monogamy. Monogamy is the practice or state of being married to one person at a time. The practice or state of having a sexual relationship with only one partner. Although we don’t know where it started the general idea is that lower ranking males started using the alternative strategy of pursuit of one woman, whereas, the higher ranking males either had many wives or many concubines. This in return made women feel better as they were the only ones receiving attention, love, protection and more from a suitor. In essence, this was a concept created by men to benefit men because women were not historically polygamous. Polygamy is marriage with more than one spouse. When a man is…
So, here you are in all your budgeting glory getting your adulting on but you realize there is still room to save more money to put towards your financial goals. Typically you would think this is a easy fix, save the money and do what you have to do, right? Yes, until you realize what you would have to give up to save that money… YOUR SPACE! This is my current dilemma, do I want a roommate or not. Here I am in a place where I am saving more money because I have paid something’s off but I am like hmmm, I can save more. Rent is sky rocketing every where, in Nashville cost of living went up 54.1% from 2000 to 2015. At this point I am considering getting a roommate because I can save some extra money, right? Yeah but is what I am going to save…
This post will be very brief as there is not any long drawn out explanation of what you should do. I will start by explaining why it is important. First, people are crazy these days, you don’t know if you have anyone going through your trash. You don’t want someone to know what medications you are taking because it will be easy to figure out why you are taking them. Also, your personal information is on that bottle and people could use that information for various uses. The main idea is to remove the label or mark the information out. Check out these ideas: These are some of the simple ways to dispose of the bottles. Two steps: Remove/Mark Out the label, throw or reuse the bottle. Listening to Solange “Cranes in the Sky” on Spotify
To be truly honest with me, some characteristics I think I have, I don’t. I would like to think of myself as patient but I’m nowhere near as patient as I think. I may be patient with other people or patient in certain circumstances but I’m really not all that patient. I think this lack of patience allows me to stay in a state of disappointment. I work out and eat right, but I want changes now, knowing good and well that changes will take time. I don’t care, I want it now! So then I sit around disappointed in myself because I haven’t gotten the results I want today. It’s an ugly trait that I have to beat in order to be successful, that now mentality is slowly killing my growth. It’s amazing how one thing can change everything. That patience has been slowly preventing me from being successful.…