Welcome to Mastering a Budget!
In this course, you will learn how to master a budget, without feeling lost, deprived, or bogged down by the process. I want to make budgeting a fun and rewarding experience. I want everyone to learn how to budget efficiently and effectively and to move you towards living the life you dream.
By mastering your budget, you will be able to account for every dollar you earn and manage your spending wisely. You will learn how to plan ahead for future expenses and save for your life goals.
If you learn how to master your budget, you can break the paycheck to paycheck cycle, get rid of debt, and increase your net worth. You can also work towards financial freedom, which is the ultimate goal. By taking this course, you are making sure that you are starting on the correct foot, down a path towards financial independence.
Budgeting is not the same as dumping a bunch of numbers into an Excel sheet.
Budgeting is more than the numbers.
It’s a way of living.
Who Am I?
I am a plain Jane, a regular person just like you. Except I am likely swimming in bigger debt. You see, I graduated from dental school with $575,000 in student debt at the age of 26. That’s more than half a million dollars!
You know the saying, “Everyone should get rich and famous, so that they can learn that they don’t want to be rich and famous?” Well, it sort of goes the same for status.
I started off as a little kid born in a third world country who came to America in search of the American Dream. I was taught (sold?) the idea that the dream lies in becoming a doctor, where I will have prestige, a lifetime of good work, and the income to live a very comfortable life.
But when I graduated from school with the title Doctor before my name, I realized that there were a lot of things attached to that title that I did not want, namely: the responsibility, the costs, the lifestyle, and most heavily, the debt.
So I went to financial advisors at the school seeking sage advice about how to get rid of the debt. To which they all suggested waiting twenty five years for the government to pay it off, essentially forcing me to work until I was 51 years old, paying minimally towards the debt and saving moderately in order to prepare myself for the tax bomb at the end of all that waiting for loan forgiveness.
When I suggested paying it off aggressively in the hopes of gaining my freedom back, they chuckled softly, saying that my income would not be enough to succeed in such an endeavor. I would show them my calculations and they would scoff, saying that I had forgotten to account for the new car I would buy, the mansion I would want to live in, located in the expensive community where all the wealthy people go, the cost of raising kids, and all other “necessary” living expenses. Disheartened, I believed them, because… they know better, right?
But while my colleagues were spending their first hard-earned dollars on new cars and buying homes in great neighborhoods, I spent my money on hiring a financial planner, who gave us the simple task of creating a budget.
And it wasn’t long before he approached me and said, “I think you CAN do this.”
Fast forward two years, and we are beating all odds with my loan repayment journey. We started with the goal of paying the loans down in ten years, and then we realized we can do it in nine. Currently, our trajectory points us closer to SEVEN YEARS. It’s changed the way I view my job dramatically, and the ability to prioritize my dollars into the things that bring me most joy gave me the freedom to pursue hobbies and passions, the biggest of which is my student loan repayment journey.
We have had great success in being consistent with our loan repayment, despite fluctuations that life threw our way. Consistency is key!
We define our success not with the amount of money we’ve saved or the amount of debt we’ve paid of, but the ability to live a lifestyle that is in line with our core values, as well as one that gives us the most joy.
I have come to love budgeting and everything that comes with it: frugality, minimalism, and the pursuit of slow living. Unlike my doctorate title, everything that was associated with budgeting was good for me: financial freedom, job autonomy, rewarding work, and a secure and comfortable lifestyle.
Can this budgeting course apply to people without student debt?
Now, if you are not a recent student graduate swimming in tons of debt, you may be wondering if this course can help you.
Of course it can! In fact, these principles are not just for people who have large loans. It is also for people who have credit card debt. It is for people who have no debt, but are having trouble saving. Most importantly, it is simply for people who want to change the direction of their life, using money as a tool in order to do it.
This course will simplify budgeting for you. It will teach you how to think of money differently, not as a resource to have, but as a tool to get what you truly want. Lastly, this course will train you to have the reflexive thought processes and good spending habits needed to budget well.
If you want to see how it’s helped people from all walks of life, see the testimonials from true course takers below!
Testimonials
Prior to this course, I considered myself pretty familiar with my expenses and a mindful shopper. However, at the end of each month I constantly found myself wondering where all my income had gone. I realized that I was in denial about my budgeting skills & decided to purchase this course. “Mastering a Budget” challenged me to think hard about my goals and how my finances play a role in achieving such goals. Developing a clear understanding of my “why” for budgeting has kept me on track when I feel like I am going off course with my finances. While on this budgeting journey, I realized that I was spending more than expected on certain categories and not saving nearly enough towards my goals. Additionally, the frugal challenges detailed in the course put me outside of my comfort zone but had long last financial benefits that I will continue to carry on. “Mastering A Budget” provided me with the motivation and tools to create a budget that is well suited for my lifestyle and goals. I highly recommend this course to everyone!
-Kirsten W.
“Having graduated with a significant amount of student debt, I realized I needed to be more aware of my budget and how I spend my money. However, I did not have much insight on how to properly manage my finances let alone having a game plan on how to do so. This course not only helped provide me a fundamental understanding on budgeting, but was also very concise and easy to follow. To anyone that wants to better understand budgeting but doesn’t know where to start, I would definitely recommend this course.”
–Nes M.
The course
By the time you have completed this course, you will know everything and anything when it comes to budgeting well. You will have exercised some frugal muscles, and organized your life’s priorities while doing very little math.
If you still have questions when you are finished with the course, please ask them in the helpful Facebook group that I have created just for students of Mastering a Budget.
Thank you for being a student and have fun learning!
XOXO
The Debtist
UP NEXT: WHAT TO LOOK FORWARD TO IN THIS COURSE
