If the title of this post didn’t give it away, I have a confession to make. Lately, when I see my friends or family I’ve been hearing the same thing. It usually goes something like this: “Omg I read all your blog posts and I always think I have to change my money habits and do some of what you write about but I just can’t.”

First of all, I sincerely appreciate and love that what I write gets read by more people than just my mom LOL (love ya mom!). But seriously, it encourages me to keep writing knowing that it’s helped even a handful of people to think differently about their money and what they do with it.

But back to the confession part: I know the name of this blog says that I make cents, or sense if you’re not into the punny things, but I have to tell you that this isn’t always the case. I am not a robot that saves most of my income and never spends money on anything other than necessities.

In fact, a lot of the things I’ve implemented with my finances come from past money mistakes I’ve made. While it is true that everything I write about I do myself, it doesn’t mean I’m perfect when it comes to money.

I’ll tell you a little story of a recent example of how I wasn’t making cents and had to get talked off the ledge a little bit.

I’m a big fan of Drake aka @champangepapi and had been wanting to go to his concert for a long time. He recently had 7 shows in Los Angeles and I didn’t buy tickets ahead of time because they were kind of expensive and of course I thought I didn’t need to spend that money. My little sister had also been dying to go and one day we found ourselves in LA just a few miles from Staples Center where Drake had a show a couple hours later.

I looked up tickets and said YOLO let’s just go since we’re already here. My boyfriend was supposed to work that night but due to weather conditions, his shift was cancelled so I felt like all the stars aligned and it was just meant to be that we went that night.

I found tickets, went through the whole process and was about to hit “purchase” but with taxes and fees, EACH ticket was going to cost $200. Mind you, these were not great seats but it was Drake so who cares?! I can be a very impulsive shopper so I was ready to just go for it, but then my boyfriend said wait.

Wait?! The show was in two hours, who has time to wait?! He asked me if I was sure we should go that night and spend $600 on our 3 tickets. Was I sure? I mean no but we were already so close. He reminded me that there were more shows later that week at The Forum so we looked at prices and sure enough, we found better seats for half the price. (Way to make cents, bae!)

I had to wait a few more days and drive back out to LA in the middle of the week after work, but we decided to go for that show and it was totally worth it. Moral of the story? I don’t always make the best financial decisions.

Sometimes I make impulsive shopping decisions, sometimes I splurge on a $6 latte, and sometimes I don’t save as much as I can or should. Despite all that, I still apply everything I write about to my own financial situation and decision making.

I still make good decisions (most of the time) and still make progress on my financial goals everyday. The reason I wanted to confess this is so next time someone reads one of my posts and thinks they can’t make changes or progress with their money because they made a bad financial decision the night before, remember that one less-than-ideal choice doesn’t cancel out all the good ones.

You can save more of your income, you can pay off debt, you can improve your credit scores, and much more. You can do all this while still having a little bit of fun along the way. Strive for progress, not perfection.

Xoxo,

Vee

Nothing on this blog should be considered personal actionable advice, research, or an invitation to buy or sell any securities. Consider all risks before investing, including the loss of your hard earned money. Vee is an Investment Advisor for Warren Street Wealth Advisors, this blog reflects her personal views, and not that of Warren Street.