Our fourth wedding anniversary was on Saturday. Normally, your fourth anniversary is celebrated with flowers and fruit. We had planned to have a few baby-free hours, grab some lunch, and maybe head to a strawberry patch where you can pick your own fruit and flowers. Unfortunately, I came down with a bad cold Thursday and wasn’t on the mend. So, we had to stay in. However, when has anything gone perfectly to plan? It suited us well.

Despite being down for the count for a few days, I’ve taken some time to reflect on our first four years of marriage. Wow, have we come a long way!

How We Celebrated Our Wedding Anniversary

As I mentioned above, our plans didn’t exactly work out. I caught a pretty bad cold and didn’t feel up to going out. So, we improvised, which has gotten us where we need to be in life so far.

There was a UFC fight airing at a normal time on Saturday. Generally, the fights don’t start until way after my bedtime. However, Saturday’s fight was over by 8 p.m. My husband is a pretty big fan of the sport, so we decided to spend the money to watch the fight here at home.

Additionally, we ordered takeout so I didn’t have to worry about cooking food and spending energy I didn’t really have. We stayed on the couch and I read bits of my book in the commercial breaks. While it was far from what we had planned, it seemed to be the perfect way to spend the day.

Reflecting on the Last Four Years

Even though our initial plans didn’t wind up happening, we still had a perfect (for us) celebration. It always seems to work out that way for us, honestly. No matter what happens, we always have what we need.

When we got married, we’d actually planned a huge ceremony in November. Instead, my husband wound up getting a job offer in Atlanta. We got married in March and high-tailed it down 85 South to whatever waited for us in ATL. Unfortunately, things were pretty crazy there. The job my husband was offered was essentially a scam, the house we were supposed to stay in had holes in windows (and ghosts), and we weren’t sure what was going to happen next.

Things worked out though. We found a high-rise apartment, my husband found new work, and we kept things afloat. When life threw us more curveballs, we always seemed to find a way to hit it out of the park. Our first Christmas together married we had bed bugs in the building. Our first anniversary together was the day everything was shut down in the U.S. due to COVID-19. Despite that, we found ways to rise above everything and still celebrate our love.

All of this to say, I hope that you find someone in your life whose love truly conquers everything else. It is nothing short of being magical.

Readers, do you have any advice for us on our fourth wedding anniversary? 

Read More

• Creating A Personal Finance Calendar
• Getting Ready For Tax Day
• Confession: We’ve Taken On A Little More Debt
• Valentine’s Day: Money and Marriage Reflection

Amanda Blankenship

Amanda Blankenship is the Director of Social Media for District Media. In addition to her duties handling everything social media, she frequently writes for a handful of blogs and loves to share her own personal finance story with others. When she isn’t typing away at her desk, she enjoys spending time with her daughter, husband, and dog. During her free time, you’re likely to find her with her nose in a book, hiking, or playing RPG video games.

www.savingadvice.com

Looking for a new job may feel like a lot of work, given the process. This is on top of the fact that countless other people are also likely looking for a job at the same time. That said, it may be in the best interests of your family for you to look for another job. Read on to see four signs that should let you know that your family would benefit a lot if you got a new job.

1. You May Improve Your Financial Security

The first reason why you may want to get back on the market to hunt for a job is that doing so could improve your financial security. If you’re earning just enough to get by from your current job, you should think about looking for another job that pays better. When you do this, you may improve the financial security of your family and improve your future prospects. You may also lower the likelihood of having to file for bankruptcy when you get a better-paying job with good benefits. Note that a whopping 97% of bankruptcies are filed by individuals. This shows that you may end up having to file for bankruptcy yourself if you don’t take care. The best measure is to make sure that you’re comfortable with your expenses and cash flow isn’t an issue in your home.

2. You Could Improve Your Work-Life Balance

Your current job may be so demanding that you hardly have any time to spend with your family. In this case, it’s important to find a job that doesn’t leave you too tired and overwhelmed at the end of the day to take pleasure in your family’s company. Your family no doubt wants to spend time with you and build a strong bond, something that you’ll only be able to do if you can comfortably get some time off from work. To this end, your family could benefit immensely if you find a new job that allows you to spend more time with them, indulging in the simple pleasures of life.

3. Layoffs Are Imminent

If you feel that there are potential furloughs or layoffs on the horizon, you’re better off looking for another job. Doing this can help you to maintain your family’s financial security. To tell if there are layoffs that could affect you, you should keep an eye open for signs like noticing your coworkers being furloughed. Other signs are if you seem to have a lot less work to do than you did before and your job’s major clients are either leaving or struggling with making payments. These signs show that things are unstable and you may be better off looking for another position. Do this bearing in mind that over 73% of job seekers in the current market are looking for a job passively. This means that if you put in the hard work, you may have a chance of getting another job, even in an unstable economy.

4. You Could Get Opportunities to Advance

Finally, if you feel as though you’ve reached the furthest point of your job, you and your family could benefit from you getting a new job. This is because the potential for growth is one of the most motivating factors for most individuals when they get employed. It helps that with the growth comes a higher earning capacity so you can be sure of improving your financial state. You may enjoy improved mental health as well, something that your family will also enjoy a lot.

These four factors should motivate you to look for a new job as soon as possible. You could improve your quality of life and get the opportunity to do more as a person as well as with your family when you do.

Saving money might seem difficult for children, but it can actually be easy given you follow a couple of tips. Below are some of the best ways to help your children form awesome money habits. Using these tips can help set your children up for success in the future.

1. Instill the Habit of Saving at a Young Age

The earlier you start teaching your children about money, the better. It’s never too early to start a conversation about finances with your kids. You can begin by simply explaining what money is and how it’s used. As they get older, you can start to instill the habit of saving.

One way to do this is to set up a piggy bank or savings account that they can contribute to. Every time they receive money, whether it’s from an allowance or gifts, encourage them to put some of it into their savings. Help them to set goals for what they want to save up for and praise them when they reach their targets.

2. Encourage Them to Spend Wisely

Teach your children the difference between needs and wants. Needs are things that we must have in order to survive, like food and shelter. Wants are things that we would like to have but don’t necessarily need.

Help them to understand that we can’t always have everything we want and that it’s important to spend money wisely. One way to do this is to give them a set amount of “fun money” to spend each week. Once it’s gone, they can’t spend any more until the following week. This will help them to budget and understand the difference between spending money and saving money.

3. Teach Them About Giving

Giving is an important money habit to teach your children. Not only is it good for others but it can also benefit your children in the long run.

When your children receive money, encourage them to set aside a portion to give to charity. Many websites can help your child give donations online. Giving donations will help them to develop a habit of giving and also show them the importance of helping others.

4. Help Them Understand Debt

Debt is something that many adults struggle with, so it’s important to teach your children about it from a young age. One way to do this is to explain the difference between good debt and bad debt. Good debt is something that we take on in order to improve our lives, like taking out a loan for a house or an education. Bad debt is something that we spend money on that doesn’t increase our net worth, like credit card debt.

5. Create Ways to Earn Money

You can create a chore chart with different earnings attached. You can design your own with your kids or you can find a downloadable chore chart online. With 1.8 billion websites operating at the same time every day, you can find downloadables on sites like Etsy, Pinterest, and more.

Another way to earn money is through an allowance. You can give your kids a set amount of money each week for completing their chores. This is a great way to teach them about budgeting and saving.

6. Teach Your Child How to Budget

One way to help your child budget is by giving them a set amount of money each week for spending. This could be their allowance or money they’ve earned from completing chores. Once the money is gone, they can’t spend any more until the following week. This will help them understand the importance of budgeting and not spending all of their money at once.

Teaching your children about money is one of the most important things you can do. By instilling good money habits, you’ll set them up for success in their future, save them from financial stress, and help them to make smart decisions with their money.