First, I got my bills as low as possible… from what I can remember, it looked something like this:

Mortgage $450

Phone $150

Gas $50

Food $400

Utilities $150

Fun $200

Insurance $100

Random $300

Total Outflows Approx: $1.8k/month

Second, I got my income as high as possible. I went from bartending to working as a bank teller part-time making $12 ish an hour (while also bartending at night for over a year). Then to $40k working at Schwab, then $45k after I obtained my Finra Series 66 and 7 licenses, then $60k working as a Financial Consultant at E*Trade, $85k my second year there with bonuses, then $115k in my third year with bonuses and after obtaining my Certified Financial Planning Certificate- take a look at this video for the exact strategy I used to get to a 6 figure job.

Third, I acted like I still had a low income. While I had a roommate I still acted like I had to pay the full rent and I saved the difference.

Fourth, I invested regularly into a robo account.

Fifth, I got my husband on the same page and he started maxing out his 401k at work. He’s at the 6 figure mark too so it did make it way easier to set aside a bunch of money when we were both making 6 figures.

We kept this up for a couple of years and things escalated. He decided to get concentrated on a few stocks he believed weren’t going anywhere- like amazon and google which have added a lot of growth to the accounts. I’m pretty fearful of individual stocks, so the funds are much more my style, but I’m glad he added those in or we would probably have 100k less or so.

Another thing that added to this was $60k from the sale of my first home. We got that invested on top of our regular contributions. 

Building a strong financial foundation isn’t easy but I do think it’s possible if you set your mind to it and follow through on your plan. If you need help creating a plan go to my website, take a look at my services and sign up for a session with me! You can read reviews from others that I’ve worked with there as well.