The Scoop...About Me

I’m Jennifer. Or Jen - but rarely Jenny. Isn't it funny how some things just get set in childhood and stick with you?

I live in the Midwestern United States which has all four seasons - and some in really full force (especially those HOT days of summer!) - with my husband and 2 kids. And maybe, someday soon, a dog. Fairly typical all-American family.

What started it all...or how every end is a new beginning
I'd like to say that I had a great financial education growing up and that I've been great with money all my life. But that wouldn't be the truth.

The truth is that while money wasn't a secret in our house, it also wasn't openly discussed. My brother and I did have to earn our money - through chores or odd jobs.

And we were taught to save some part of what we earned. That was about it. And it was enough for awhile.

I got a job and a car - and helped pay for that plus the insurance and all the other stuff. Then I went to college and paid for part of that...and the credit card companies were everywhere! Uh.Oh.

Yep - that was me. Graduated with no student loans but a couple of thousand in credit card debt. Ok, I know it doesn't sound bad given the subprime mortgage mess, foreclosure and average credit card balance of $8,000 or so. Unfortunately, it got worse. Much worse.

When it rains...
I also graduated with a serious boyfriend, soon-to-be-fiance. Got my CPA license and a fancy job. And we bought a house and stuff to put in it. And then we broke up. Oops.

I paid rent on an apartment, half the house payment, all of a car payment...and lived the rest of my life on credit cards. Groceries and retail therapy. Then I got a consolidation loan to pay off the credit card balance. And I charged them up - again.

See what I mean by "worse"?

...get an umbrella!
Finally, the house sold. At a loss. And...another loan to pay off the outstanding balance. But at least the money going down the drain stopped. And, about the same time, I had had enough.

So, I started over. Slowly but surely, I paid the debts off. And I do mean slowly.

Along the way, I learned plenty of stuff about the plain basics of everday finance that I hadn't learned growing up. (And, no, that isn't the stuff that they teach in accounting courses, the CPA exam or the MBA classes even though it should be!)

Fast forward...new guy (who turned into fabulous husband) and kids. Plus a pretty solid financial life that let's us do some really fun stuff.

Yeah, we worked really hard to get here. And we want our kids to have a better footing than we did. We want them to know the basic things about money (earning, keeping and growing it) that we didn't. We talked for several years about really beginning their money education in earnest. And it was becoming clear that we needed to do something.

Plus we wanted to help others - to make a way for kids to learn about money earlier so they didn't run into the same problems I did. Or the problems that you can read about in the newspapers or online everyday. It was all just coming together at the same time.

Now, how exactly were we going to do that?

The Solution
Sure, I’ve got a degree in business. Really two - if you count the MBA. And then there's the CPA. But no matter how many letters I can put behind my name, nothing compares to lessons learned along the way. And none of that got me any closer to sharing what I had learned. Hmmmm.

About the same time that all of this was going on, I decided I was tiring of the corporate life. While I have never been laid off (downsized, right-sized, or given a new opportunity), I have been through the process as a manager in a large company more times than I can count on one hand. What a downer. More importantly, my kids are growing up fast!

Time for some new goals! Or maybe just one big one. And here it is: Find a job that makes me want to get up and get started each day, that allows me the freedom to do it from whereever I want, that allows me to spend as much time with my family as I want and that I will still be happy doing for as long as I want.

Unrealistic or unachievable? I don't think so. If I learned one thing in life it's that nothing is impossible! And, I've seen too many examples of people doing this - it's just a matter of deciding and doing it. What is it that you really want from life?

Then do it. Stop saying you can't - you can. Because you said so. That's what I decided. I am ready because I said so (must be the mom in me). And I've got the Internet to help me. Better yet, I found something else to help me too. I somehow found SBI! which stands for Site Build It!

And suddenly, I thought I could build a website. It could help me meet all the things in my goal. OK, wait - I can build a website?!

Yep. With SBI! anyone can do it (well, anyone with access to a computer). That's how I built this site. See? I told you anyone can do it! You don't need programming skills or any web design background. You don't even really need to know what your site will be about. SBI! helps with all of that.

The Video Tour will give you an idea of how it works (or the Quick Tour if you're on dial up). Then check out the loads of successful SBI websites built by people like you and me. These sites are in the top 1% of the most successful sites on the web. Wow!

And, so here I am making lots of progress - at my own pace! - towards my new goal. I've added a more detailed review of SBI! here, so you can click over there if you want to learn even more. That's where I talk about all the fabulous, sometimes technical sounding, pieces of SBI! If you have a business you want to "put on the Web" or if you just want to some more info, be sure to check it out.