FI for Single Moms

Hello and welcome! This section of Stepping Stones to FI is quite similar to the rest of the blog, but with a twist. A single mom twist!

As a single mom, I know how hard managing finances can be.

The information on how to earn more, save more or budget wisely is all out there. But it’s like everyone is speaking to the married couples or the millennials with no kids. What about us moms that are struggling to do all of this on one salary. While juggling childcare expenses, a full time job, absentee parenting and so much more. It’s exhausting!

And everything just seems so damn difficult when you’re doing it alone.

But guess what? You aren’t alone.

Really.

You aren’t alone.

It’s hard to maintain perspective with the everyday stress and overwhelm of being a single parent. Each day is full. Sometimes the best you can do is put one foot in front of the other and go through the motions of surviving.

This is how I felt for 10 years of my life. 10. Years. Just writing that makes me feel so sad. Why did it take me 10 years to gain control of my life and my finances?

Maybe because I felt alone. I was so disappointed that I wasn’t providing the life that I wanted for my son. He was supposed to be raised in a loving home with his father taking him out on bike rides or playing toss on the weekends. I was supposed to be home with him, raising him the way my husband and I wanted him to grow up. Instead I was working 12 hour days and leaving him behind in daycare. Mostly being raised by someone else. Someone I didn’t even know.

I was existing in survival mode. Stressed and overwhelmed to the point that I was incapable of looking too far ahead. I could manage one day at a time. One foot in front of the other.

I was able to map out exactly how I would build my career so that I could earn enough to support myself and my son. I knew exactly what steps I needed to take in order to land the right jobs and ensure frequent pay increases.

But that’s about as far as I got with my financial planning.

I made so many mistakes.

As soon as I had money, it disappeared.

I would be so much further ahead financially if only I had known better.

But that’s okay. The beauty of making mistakes is that we learn so much better for having made them.

I recently woke up one morning with the sudden realization that my (other) baby, this blog FI & Wine, is missing a huge component of who I am and what I have experienced and learned in my life. And this is a HUGE part of what I have to offer my readers.

My journey has shaped me into the person I am today. I am wholeheartedly pursuing financial independence because of the burden I have experienced as a working single mother.

And let’s face it, I’m tired of the stress and overwhelm. Being financially secure and taking care of myself and my family should not have to be so hard. 

And so I started taking control of my life and my finances, and mapping out a better way of earning and saving. Because it really doesn’t have to be so hard. A future does exist where I don’t have to work 12 hour days and miss out on valuable time with my loved ones.

Imagine you only have to work part-time. Imagine you don’t have to pay for before and after school care for your kids. Imagine you have the time to cook dinner and the energy to read a bedtime story without falling asleep right there in your child’s bed.

Through financial tracking, budgeting, saving, smart side hustle and investing, financial independence is possible. Having more time with your family is possible.

My journey hasn’t been super easy. In fact, it’s been much harder than it should have been. Which is why I’m adding this FI for Single Moms section. I now know the steps I need to take to accelerate wealth building and take back my life. One step at a time, it’s not so hard.

I’ll help step you through the process, too.

From one single mama to another, you can do this.

To access all posts speaking directly to my fellow single moms, check out the category “Personal Finance for Single Moms” in the top menu. Or, click here.