Friends,
I still remember what it felt like before I understood our finances. Everything felt like it was hanging on by a thread.
I needed every paycheck to hit on time. I needed certain checks to clear on certain days, or the whole week would come undone. If you have ever done math in your head at the grocery store, praying the card would go through, you know exactly the feeling I am talking about.
The money fights were intense back then too. Not the cute kind of disagreement you laugh about later. The kind where you are both exhausted and scared and taking it out on each other because the fear has to go somewhere.
And on top of all of it, we are a special needs family. Which means the normal amount of hard already had extra hard stacked on top. There was no margin left over for money stress. But money stress showed up anyway, uninvited, like it always does.
When Money Feels Bigger Than Money
Here is what I have learned since then. Money problems have a way of making everything else in life feel unstable too, even the things that have nothing to do with money. When the finances feel shaky, your whole house can feel shaky.
There Really Is Another Side
Learning how to get out of debt, and learning how to dream again, was one of the best things that ever happened to our family. Not just because of the money. Because of the peace. The stress level in our home dropped so much that my husband and I actually remembered we liked each other.
I am grateful for every mistake we made along the way, honestly. I do not think I would trust anyone who taught me this stuff without having lived it first, and I definitely lived it. Budgeting with a spreadsheet you found on Pinterest at midnight is a rite of passage, and I have the tab history to prove it.
If You're There Right Now...
If you are in the thread hanging on part right now, I want you to hear me clearly. It will not always feel this way. There is a version of your life with breathing room in it. I promise you it exists, because I am living in it now, and I did not get there by being smarter than you. I got there by learning a few things, in order, on purpose.
That is exactly what we are building together this September.
My group coaching class launches in September, and it is built for exactly this moment, the one where you are ready to stop white-knuckling it through your finances and start building real breathing room. Keep an eye on your inbox for details, because I want you there.
Cheering for you,
Jenny
See you next week!
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