Hey Guys!
Welcome to my personal finance and lifestyle blog!
Finances have always been a passion of mine, and I am constantly researching new ways to better my own personal finances, just like everyone else right? So, I thought why not create a blog to display my financial journey, where I can improve my own finances, track my progress, all while helping others achieve their financial goals along the way!
I am here to share my story with you in hopes it will help you create your dream life, because I am here to tell you, I get it!
The desire to work less and make more money, how to pay off debt quicker to gain financial freedom, the goal of becoming your own boss to design a life you love, the uncertainty of how to make your dreams a reality.
I get it!
I can identify with you.
I work full time as a funeral director.
I am a mother to two adorable toddler boys (born 1 year and 7 days apart)!
As a family we have some debt that we would like to get paid off, along with some large financial goals for our future.
Making more money while working less is the ultimate goal for me. It means being able to spend more quality time with my children and family!
In order to make that goal a reality, something needed to change, so I started a blog.
Before starting this blog I knew absolutely nothing about blogging or online businesses.
So let me take you through my story and tell you how I have gotten to where I am today with my blogging journey!
In 2008 I graduated from High School, and started my College years at the University of Findlay.
At this point I knew I wanted to go to school and become a funeral director so that I could one day take over and run our family owned business, Barndt Funeral Home.
Seeing how my Dad and Grandpa have been able to help families get through the hardest times of their lives is what really made me want to follow in their footsteps.
So, I began my undergraduate classes majoring in science, with a minor in business to get me ready for Mortuary School, and to get me ready to be an entrepreneur and own our family owned business.
In 2010 I moved from a very small town in Ohio to the large city of Cincinnati to begin Mortuary School.
I studied at the Cincinnati College of Mortuary Science, which at the time, was a 5 quarter program lasting just over a year.
At the end of the 4th quarter we were required to take our National Board Exams.
After passing my National Board Exams, I completed a 4 week co-op internship, and then graduated Cincinnati College of Mortuary Science in 2011 with a Bachelor’s Degree in Mortuary Science, and an Associate’s Degree in Applied Sciences.
In 2012 I worked as an Apprentice at our family owned funeral home. As part of our state licensing we were required to complete a one year apprenticeship, and I was able to complete that while working at our funeral home.
Once I completed my apprenticeship, I passed my state board exam, and finally earned my titles as a licensed funeral director and licensed embalmer in the state of Ohio.
In 2013 I began my full time working career as a licensed funeral director.
I really enjoyed working full time, and implementing new ideas into our business that I had learned about in school.
Helping families plan for the future, and helping them get through the most difficult times of their lives is a passion I hold very dearly to my heart. I am constantly researching ways in which I can help and be there for the families I serve.
At this point in my life I had about $30,000 in student loan debt, and also roughly $20,000 in debt from purchasing my Ford Edge SUV.
So, if I wasn’t spending time researching new ways to help my families, I was looking for ways to earn extra money on the side.
In my line of work we value the importance of educating the public on pre-arranging and pre-funding funerals for the benefits of helping their families.
When people pre-arrange their funerals they have the option of pre-paying for their funerals as well, and that virtually serves as a life insurance policy for them.
In order to sell funeral insurance in the state of Ohio you need a license.
So, in early 2014 I completed all necessary paperwork, and received my license to sell funeral insurance. Whenever I sell a policy I do receive commission, making this my second form of income to help pay off some of my debt!
2014 ended up being a very big year for me in the sense that I reconnected with my high school sweetheart, Kirk, we moved in together, and after about a year of living together got pregnant with our first baby due in July 2015.
We were over the moon exited to be expecting our first baby, but also a little scared because we had a lot we needed to accomplish before July 2015!
Kirk had just purchased our first house for $26,000.00, which was a foreclosed house that we planned to have remodeled and moved in to before baby came! Conveniently, Kirk’s profession is Construction so he was able to do all the work himself!
Lastly, in December 2014 we purchased a new 2015 Ford Explorer so that we had a reliable vehicle big enough for car seats!
So, going into 2015, I had about $20,000 in school debt, $45,000 in debt from the Ford Explorer, we had a house that needed to be remodeled, and needed to save up money for the arrival of our precious baby due in July!
Yikes, that was a little stressful time for us, but we were happier than we had ever been!
With Kirk working in construction, he worked full time for his father’s construction business, and then worked evenings and weekends on his own side jobs doing roofs and remodels, which brought in a substantial amount of money.
At this time I was still working full time at the funeral home, making extra income selling pre-need/funeral insurance. However, I wanted to help out a little more with our finances, so I ran to be elected as the fiscal officer for our Township, Montgomery Township.
Since nobody ran against me, I was elected and became Fiscal Officer, making that my third source of income.
Every little penny helped with saving up for the baby, and paying for the house remodel!
Kirk worked countless hours to get the house completed for us, and we were able to move in 3 weeks before we had our baby!
On July 14, 2015 we became very proud parents when we welcomed our first baby boy, Taylor Bryan!
I only took about 4 weeks off of work for maternity leave.
When our first baby was 4 months old, we found out we were expecting another baby due the following July of 2016!!
Again, we were over the moon excited to be expecting another precious bundle of joy, but we would lying if we didn’t say we were a little nervous to be expecting another baby so soon!
At the end of 2015, I had 3 sources of income, a 5 month old baby, was expecting another baby, and had debt that I wanted to get paid off.
In July 2016, our first born, Taylor, turned 1 years old on the 14th, and then on July 21, 2016 we welcomed our second precious baby boy, Chance Henry!
I took about the same time off of work for maternity leave, only about 4 weeks, but I really should have taken more time off.
By the end of 2016 we were both making pretty good money, had a 1 year old boy, 5 month old boy, some debt, and we were working a lot hours!
At this point I was really starting to feel the need and want of being able to make more money while working less hours so I could spend more time with my babies and family.
In January 2018, we had some debt that we wanted to work on getting paid off, along with some large financial goals for our future.
Making more money while working less is the ultimate goal for me. It means being able to spend more quality time with my children and family.
In order to make that goal a reality, I knew something needed to change. So, after hours upon hours of research, I started a blog.
Before starting this blog I knew absolutely NOTHING about blogging or online businesses.
I started this blog so that I could help everyone who was just like me, and had no idea where to begin with blogging. My goal is to educate people on how to begin their blogging journey, how to improve their finances, how to start a side hustle that fits their lifestyle, and ultimately help people design their dream life!
If you want to start a blog I recommend checking out my tutorial How To Start A Blog.
Two of my passions in life are helping my families get through the toughest times of their lives, and everything dealing with finance, blogging, and lifestyle. I love reading articles on how to make more money, how to save more money, successful blogging tips, etc.
I really hope to use this blog to educate others as well as myself about finance, blogging, and how to get started while working full time with a family!
Well, that’s it for now!
But stay tuned as I will be back for updates on my blogging journey!
-Dannielle
Since starting my blog and getting in control of my money I have been able to…..
- Pay off my $45,000 loan for my Ford Explorer
- Pay off $20,000 in debt
- Create a comfortable emergency fund for our family
- Pay the maximum amount into my IRA every year
- And take dream vacations with our family and friends!
Here’s how to get started:
- Check out my step by step blog tutorial on How To Start A Blog
Articles I reccommend reading:
How To Start A Successful Blog
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