The Hardship of Adulting, The Millennial Way

I never thought in a million years that I would finally get the hang of this adulting thing. I'm going to tell you, it's been a long road of mismanaged finances, bills on top of bills, and the list goes on… Adulting is downright hard to do if you weren’t properly prepared. I want to encourage you that adulting may be hard at first but it takes major discipline to be responsible bill-paying adult..lol

Growing up, I watched my mother work very hard to provide for my sister and I. I can truly say that my mother endured a lot of hardships that caused so much emotional stress and sleepless nights. She always stressed to us the importance of paying bills on time and how paying your bills will release financial freedom in your life. Meaning, that if you pay your bills when they are due it builds great credit history. Having great credit is the key to getting you the things you need and you don't have a lot of money in the bank.

My college days were the days where I would use your school refund to buy food, clothes, bundles, make random nail appointments, etc. to get what I wanted. Honestly, that was the time that I should’ve been learning to save my money. The money I received in college was the perfect amount of money to put into good use by actually buying things that we need.

The poor and careless mistakes with my refund money carried over to my adulthood. Truly having poor money management can cause you to become in a revolving door of debt on top of debt. I didn’t realize that a lack of knowledge about my finances caused me to be so stressed out and constantly panicking.

Below are the ways that helped me adjust to adulthood:

1. Financial Counseling and Planning

2. Create a budget--for groceries, bills, car payment, etc.

3. Stop Living in Survival Mode

4. Pay your bills on TIME!

5. Understand that you aren't perfect!-- Mistakes happen!

6. Change your mindset

7. Build your credit-- Business and personal credit

8. Pay your student loans

Just know to be an adult has its perks sometimes! But once you get the hang of the major things then your life will be so overwhelming. Everything takes time! Do the necessary steps to be successful.