There She is! Miss America

My decision to go back to UNLV has been a...conflicting one. Before I came out here to Fort Knox, my plan was to go back home, work my lil' ol' job for another few month and go to a small school in Utah that was a little less expensive and possibly a bit easier to handle.  
You can imagine my family's surprise when I woke up one morning and my mind had completely changed.  I had chosen, once again, to leave home and be on my own.  In some ways, I get so sad to leave. I'll miss my family so much, but I just can't stay. 
I was reading a blog post that Amelia wrote and it occurred to me why I feel that way.  I highly recommend that any twenty-something living somewhere besides their hometown gives it a read. I'm sure it will resonate with you. *** Today my little sister sent me a SnapChat that said "It seems like you think home is a bad place".  I'm assuming she said that because I posted some BuzzFeed article on Facebook about the things that people say to you when you leave home. So...I've decided to write an open letter to the world about growing up, moving out, and being your own person. 
**** My family is the number one most important thing in the world to me.  I love them all more than anything in the entire world.  Today I flipped through some pictures I have saved on my computer and I just couldn't believe how much we have all changed. 
We went from this little family just playing music together on a Friday night for our friends...

To a grandma and grandpa

A mommy 

A college student 

And well, you know all about my stuff...

But the point I'm getting at, is that in the span of about 6 or 7 years, a whole lot of things have changed. We've all lived some life and had some adventures. My little sister is about to experience living on her own for the first time. My sister and her new husband are learning all about the ups and downs of parenthood.  My parents are trying to figure out what the heck to do with an empty nest...

And me? Well I'm just trying to find the place that I fit best in this world.  I'm working on shaping my character and rounding myself out (not physically...ha. ha.) I want to "home" to be wherever I'm at.  Right now, home is my barracks room at Fort Knox. While it isn't the coziest and I'm not always super happy to sit in there and run up my phone bill, that's home. I live there and it's mine. 

For now. 

I'll always have Salt Lake to go back to.  It will always be a place that I can say I grew up in. But it's also a place that I've grown out of.  It's different and so am I. Life continues to push forward there when I'm not around.  So I need to make a home wherever I rest my head at.  

When I'm gone, I miss my family.  I miss the, while extremely annoying, familiar hum of the freeway while I fall asleep in my bed.  I miss my mom singing "There she is! Miss America!" when she fist sees me that morning.  I miss fighting over the last piece of nearly burnt-to-a-crisp bacon.  I'll miss random, late night trips to Walmart with my big sister...And I'll always miss those things. It will never go away, but things can't always stay the same.  

I'm just so lucky that I have made so many great memories with the people I love.  I can't wait to have a family of my own so I can teach my kids everything my parents have taught me.  And teach my future husband how to keep the cupboards closed and to dry off in the shower (I'm talking about you, daddy) I have been extremely blessed and lived an amazing life filled with great things.
But it's time for me to write a new volume of my life.  I can't even say it's a chapter, because I'm pretty certain this is an entirely different book of life I'm writing here. 

10 Things to Love Instead of Hate

After mulling over the life that I am currently living, a thought occurred to me: I have explained the many things that I hate about the Army, but I haven’t ever discussed the things that I love.  That being said,he complaints were mostly for the "10 things I hate..." series, but I suppose that it's time to share a few things about the Military that I couldn't live without

          1//  I have a friends all over the country that I could call any time.  There are couches across the America (and Puerto   Rico for that matter...) that I could sleep on if I needed because of all of the connections and friendships I have made in the Army.

 

    2//       We are a family.  I have never felt as loved as I do in the Army.  Even when I’m being teased about something dumb I said two weeks prior or someone is giving me a hard time because I screwed up, I understand that we take care of each other and would literally lay down our lives for one another.

         3//  The money isn't bad. Sure it isn't a ton, but for me, a young single soldier without much to support but myself, it is pretty good. I can’t even imagine what kind of money I would have saved if I was active duty. Of course, for soldier with big families and all that, it’s much harder to get by.  I just try not to think about it hourly and I feel okay with it.

         4//  It has presented me with opportunities I wouldn't have had otherwise. I've been able to get HAZMAT certifications, I got to go on a cross country road trip for a specific purpose.  I've had all kinds of adventures here (to be divulged later) and this is only the beginning.

   

            5//  I got instate tuition at the college I attend because of the Army.  It constantly inspires me to work hard and be better. While I've been here at LDAC (Leadership Development Assessment Course) I have decided that I should be an officer. I've decided to go back to school completely on a whim because I don’t want to be ordinary. I want to be...All that I can be…. (see what I did there?)

   

      6//  The Army has taught me how to be a grown up and take care of myself. While I have always been “mature for my age” the Army did so much to teach me not only how to act older, but how to be older. I've learned to take control of my life and my career and be a proactive, contributing member of the World.

        7//    I have learned how to work.  Pre-Army life, when I was presented with a physically challenging or otherwise difficult task, I would feel defeated and call for help unable to solve the problem on my own.  Now, I look at problems in a different way. I will do what I can to fix something before I shout for assistance.

           8// On the flip side of #7, I’m not afraid to ask for help.  Previously, I would have asked for help, yes, but I also would have sat and stared at my problem for 30 minutes while I worked up the courage to tell someone I didn't succeed at my task. The Army taught me that things are accomplished faster with help when you need it.

     9//  I have been exposed to people and situations that I never would have been otherwise.  It has made me into a far more well rounded person.  I'm so happy that I've had the chance to meet so many great people and learn to many things from them.  

      10//  And finally the Army made me eat.  This might sounds stupid, but I used to hate all kinds of food that I now things are absolutely delicious just because I was so hungry at some point I had to eat whatever was in front of me. Well, now I know that those foods were actually quite tasty and should never be neglected again.

And there you have it.  10 things I love about the Army.  I honestly could go on and on.  Nearly all of these things could apply to any branch of the military.  I suppose that it would depend on the person.  If you ask me, you get out of it what you put into it.  I work hard and put everything into the Army so I get a lot out of it as well.

Whenever I look at my life’s decisions and the path that I've ended up on, I feel completely satisfied with it. While it wasn't the plan initially, I have made myself very happy with my choices. I cannot wait to continue on this path and find out what else this amazing life has to offer.

Dat Credit Doh

Well hellooo! I know that it’s pretty late on a Monday to be posting, but I want to get down to business here.  I've been working on getting all my school stuff straightened out. Here I am again cutting it super close (just like last year) and making things all stressful! On the bright side, I'm enrolled! I'm wait-listed for one class, but otherwise, I'm done! All I have to do is get my room assignment and I'm as good as a resident of Las Vegas again!

***

Each Monday is supposed to be dedicated to “No Spend July”.  Sadly, I haven’t been able to do an amazing job at monitoring my spending, but I have been working on a few other things that have a whole lot to do with my financial future.   To check out how Ashley is doing with her adventure into learning how to budget, head over to her blog!

 Today I want to talk about something that totally sucks but is so super necessary in the world of money:

Credit.

If you ask me, like that good ol’ Dave Ramsey says “Cash is king”.  And he is totally right. It is.  But in some situations, you just need good credit.  People look at your credit all the time. When you rent some please to live, they check your credit report. When you get a mobile phone contract, they check your credit report. If you want to buy a house and you aren't carrying around $100,000 in your wallet, you’re going to need good, experienced credit to get a mortgage.

I am 21 years old.  I have some credit but not a lot.  I’m working really hard right now to bring up my score and make some big payments so that I ca refinance my car in about a year. I’m also working at it so that when I decide that I want to settle down and buy a house, I don’t have to struggle and wish I’d been a little bit smarter with my credit when I was young.

Today, I want to share with you what I have learned about Credit so far. Some of this has been from experience and some has been from my job at a private label credit card where I am frequently able to see why denials and approvals are made while looking at credit reports. 

Remember that app I told you about? They have an awesome blog with an article specifically on this.  It says it's only about cancelling credit cards, but it isn't.  Worth a read. 

1      If you have deferred student loans, your score will be inflated.  It might look like your score is amazing, but when creditors actually look at your report, they’ll see that most of the “experience” on your credit is stuff you have but you don’t pay.  That doesn't actually show them anything about how you handle credit.

2      Limits matter. If you don’t have any accounts with limits over $500 your credit score will suffer higher limits with less the 90% of the limit used looks good and will bring your score up.

    Use credit cards like debit cards.  I pay off my credit card days after I use it. Granted, I've only had it for about a month, but my score has already risen by 70 points because I have already made a payment on it.

      How you pay affects your score. If you always pay late, your credit will reflect that!

      Until you've been using credit for several years (read 7) your credit probably won’t look amazing. I, being 21 and having had one thing on credit (9 month old auto loan), looked really crappy to creditors when I was trying to get a new car, but you have to start somewhere. I now have a few different accounts using credit and my score will gradually go up the longer they sit on my credit report.

      Start small. Don’t try to go and get a major credit card right out of the gate. If you have rookie credit, get a rookie credit card! Your bank or credit union will likely approve you for one if you have proof of income and new credit.

      MONITOR!!! You should always watch your credit for errors. My report has an address on it I haven’t ever lived at.  Scary. Watch it and dispute when you see things pop up that are NOT you.

Credit is a game.  It isn't an easy one either. You have to work it for a long time to win.  Just keep in mind that while it does suck, your credit matters.  There is WAY more to credit than what I have just gone over.  There is even more that I want to say, but I can see people just clicking right past this post as it has a million words and isn't really a whole lot of fun…so I’ll quit now. 

I hope that someone can get something out of today’s post about money! 

This Time Will Be Different

Well, I did it again. I made a huge life changing decision. It's one I've made before, but then, the timing wasn't right. I was overly excited for something that was very difficult to accomplish in a short amount of time.
I've been spending some time around the colleg campus in Louisville and I just felt homesick for that life. I felt, all of a sudden, like I needed to make a change.  Since I left school, although I've been working very hard and saving money, I have felt so very...stationary.  It was like I still new what I wanted but didn't really have any true plans to pursue it.  Being here and working with Cadets has simply changed my mind.  
I'm going back to UNLV.

 

Yep.  Real life. I'm doing it.  All I have to do is submit my immunization proof and I'm in.  It was so easy. I called the registrar's office and there was nothing to it.  A sign that I have to do it.

 

While I'm at it, I'm going to attend ROTC courses to later (hopefully) become a Commissioned officer.  Just thinking about it, I have butterflies. That alone tells me that I have to do it.  It was like I woke up this morning and just knew what I had to do. 

 

At first, I thought I was being ridiculous thinking that I could get home from Kentucky and start school right away, but now, it just feels right.  I know that I've said that before, but I feel so much more confident this time. On top of that, I'll have a little bit more money in my pocket. If you'll remember last fall semester I was ridiculously broke. Like so terribly broke I couldn't eat out. Like ever.

 

This time...it will be different.  And I cannot wait!

 

I have a checklist a mile long of the things that I have to do before I can go, but it isn't phasing me at all. Before I felt overwhelmed and stressed out, as if there was no possible way to accomplish anything at all. This time...this time will be different.

Why They Say it Like That I Don't Know

For the 4th of July, I went out to Louisville (pronounced LOO-AH-VUL...why they say it like that, I don't know.). Finally! It was...fantastic to say the least. I went out with a handsome young man who showed me around the town. We went out to Bardstown Road and had some pizza (amazing.) and then later drove down to the waterfront for a walk across the River. If this isn't breath taking, I don't know what is...

I took several more pictures out there, but I did this really stupid thing where I deleted one-hundred three photos that I thought would just save to my computer. Wrong. Luckily, I posted this one to Facebook, so it's still in tact.  I suppose I'll just have to go back again so that I can relieve it and take more pictures.  It was really so cool. You walk over the Ohio River from Louisville, Kentucky and into Jeffersonville, Indiana. They call this whole area "Kentuckiana".  Weird.

So far, I really like this place. Seriously, the more I see, the more I feel a need to go more places. Hopefully I'll get to go out again this weekend.  I have plans to go to a Louisville Bats game today. My work schedule is totally nuts, so I usually don't even know if I have to work until I wake up for that day, but so far, I've made time to make friends and have some fun.

This is another thing that is nuts about this place. A few days ago, I was sitting in the bricks (that's my room in the barracks) and I see flashes of lightening outside my window. Two seconds later, rain is pouring, the wind is howling and the thunder's rolling.

It howled and poured for about 20-30 minutes then was suddenly done. The next morning, there were only a few little wet spots to show for that monster storm the night before.

Basically, Kentucky, while much different from home, is quite an amazing place. I can't wait to see what else it has to offer. If you've ever been here/lived here and have some things in mind that you think/know that I should see, I would be very happy to hear your suggestions. I crave adventure. Feed it to me.

Getting Appy

Today is a good day.  
Today, I made my last payment to UNLV.  While I am not debt free, I no longer have that burden to bear.  I am so happy to have that completely taken care of.  Little by little, I'm learning how to manage all the moving parts of my life and make them work in my favor.  
Money is such a weird thing, but I'm trying hard to turn it into a game.  I really want to win. 
In order to work on this I'm collaborating with Ashley from American Honey to avoid spending for this month. As I have been...a little bit behind on my blogging, I only just check out what Ashley wrote today and I decided to download the same app that she has to help me with my budgeting. 
This app takes the information from you financial accounts and will really make a difference in helping you read your financial goals.  It tells you how much you can spend(orange), save(green), and the amount of money used by bills(blue).

It also has all the amounts calculated here on this main breakdown page. It remembers what you spend and how you use your money to help you save.  It's basically the coolest thing ever. I'm only just getting used to it, but I'm sure once I get the hang of it, it will be my best friend. It even give you exact amounts you are able to spend down to the week/day/month to help you achieve your goals. 

Best. Thing. Ever.  Ashley's post about the app was definitely more informative, so please, head over to her blog and check out the post.

Well I hope you are all having a wonderful Monday. Hopefully the rest of your week is great!  

Saving Those Big Bucks

Well Hello, July.  It’s good to see you.  

Today, I want to share with you, my financial goals for while I’m at Ft. Knox.  Ashley, over at American Honey asked me if I’d like to join her in attempting to save as much money as possible throughout the month of July.  So together, we will provide weekly updates on how we’re doing and what we have done to keep our expenses to a minimum. You can read her intro to "No Spend July" here.

As I am currently on orders in a different state, I have made allowances for some “Fun Money”.  I don’t want to spend all my time out here not having adventures. That is just not how I do things. 

But anyway, the basic principle of this challenge that Ashely has invited me to do is go the whole month of July working hard at saving money as opposed to spending it.  She has a few techniques that she is using and I have a few that I am using.  Hers is a little bit more scientific than mine, but it all works I suppose.

This is how I will avoid spending them big bucks:

1   1) Use my meal card as opposed to eating out (I’m also all stocked up on snacks and stuff for sandwiches)

2   2) Drink very little.

3   3)  Use the on-post shuttle/car pool to avoid fuel usage.

Those are my staples, but I’m also going to be working hard to find some free/cheap entertainment out here.  I don’t want to just allow all this time out here to pass me by, but I am also trying to be a frugal as possible.  Hopefully I succeed!

As well as working hard to save my money, I've also just recently gotten my first credit card.  I'm currently working on building some good credit history so that I can refinance my car and prepare for my future. 

If you’d like to join us, please do so.  It’s never too late to get your financial goals in line.