5th Week: How to gain extra pay in 2025 without working any more

If you are followed along then you know that today is step IV. You need to do step I, step II, and Step III to get the hack and not be overwhelmed. If you are doing those then you have all your bills set up on a calendar around their due dates. 

First, take another calendar for a 30 day interval. Then, set your bills to be paid on Fridays only. 

If your electric bill is due on a Wednesday, pay it the Friday before. Alternatively, you can pay it the Friday after. Additionally, this should also be set up on a 4 Friday a month rotation. Some bills will be early and some bills will be a little late. But do not pay bills late that would incur late fees like a credit card. 

It will take a minute to get this figured out and you have to adjust. But, once you do it for the first 30 days the next 30 becomes easier. And here’s the way this budget set up gets you extra paychecks. 

In the year of 2025 there are 4 months where we get a 5th Friday. (January, May, August, October)

If your bills are paid based on 4 Fridays, this 5th Friday is essentially an extra week of pay. You don’t need to assign it for bills.

You can use that money to build a savings, pay off debt, go on a trip, do home renovations. The choices are endless. And the best part is that you don’t have to work any extra hours to get it.

This was how I set up my bills when I was drawing a weekly pay check. It will be uncomfortable at first. You will say things like why am I paying a bill early. That’s your ego talking and it’s been in charge now for a while and what has it got you? Try this and see if it works. If it doesn’t you can always go back to the discomfort you know so well.

I hope you find this resource helpful. Please let me know how it worked for you in the comments. Let me know if it didn’t work for you as well. 

In Kindness

PS: Credit to Linna Mitchell who taught this to me many years ago as a young mother. I hope this finds someone else who will benefit from it as I did.

Achieve Financial Discipline: Your Step-by-Step Guide

Welcome Back to this budget series. If you haven’t done step I or step II you can click on the links and check em out. (The hyperlinks are in the highlighted words above.) We are going to take steps I and II and apply them in step III and in step IV I’m going to show you how being disciplined will give you 3-4 extra pay checks a year without working more than you are now. 

Take the information about your bills. Include details like their name, minimum payment, or average payment. Remember that things like utilities will fluctuate. Add their due date and apply them to a month. You can do this on a digital calendar like your phone or Google Calendar. You can also print one out or apply it to a planner. 

Go down through your list.

On each due date, write the name of the bill. Include the minimum payment or the average payment. 

Do this for every bill you pay every month. 

Then stop. You’ve completed steps I, II,III! Way to go!

Stay tuned. In step IV, I’m going to show you how to give yourself an extra 3-4 paydays a year. You won’t need to work any extra. 

Look forward to seeing y’all next time.

Mastering Your Income: Strategies for Living Below Your Means

Welcome back to Part II of Your Guide to Facing Financial Reality. In case you missed the first post you can find it here. Picking right back up from where we left off means looking at your total. What is it? Is it more than you thought? Less than you thought? Or have you actively not thought about it?

The number isn’t something to tie emotion to. You need to come at this from a place of logic. Remember if you made it you can unmake it. You have the power. 

Now we need to know what you have coming in. If you have a consistent income, this should be fairly easy. This applies if you work for someone. 

Figuring out your income

Step 1. If you have a salary or an hourly wage, first look at your check stub or direct deposit slips. Next, do the math that helps you figure out your monthly wages. Then, calculate your weekly wages. Remember there are 12 months in a year and 52 weeks in a year. 

Step 1: If you are self employed or your income is inconsistent this can be harder. Go back through your records that could be your book keeping software, your taxes, or your checking account deposits. Anywhere you’ve received money for your business or services you want to get totals for each year. You want totals for at least 2 years 5 if you have them. 

Step 2: Review the information you’ve gathered. Find out the smallest amount of money per month you’ve ever brought in. This will be the monthly income we build your budget around. 

Step 3. This monthly total you need to break down into 4-week intervals so you understand what your weekly income is. So you’d take this total and divide it by Step 4. Figuring out what your least income is imperative to learning how to live below your means. If you can develop the lifestyle to live below your means, you can use the excess income to tackle debt. You can also build retirement, invest in your business or health, or even travel. Living intentional has to start with strategy and strategy can’t be achieved if you don’t have a plan. And a plan can’t be built if you keep ignoring your spending habits. 

You can’t create a relationship with a new life if you are still living the lifestyle of your past self. 

Come back tomorrow when we put part I and II together. 

Your Guide to Facing Financial Reality

In 2008, I was affected by the real estate crash. I learned many lessons about personal and business finance. I was grossly uneducated and immature. I paid for it with my possessions, my ego, my businesses, my credit score, and my confidence for a while. This is the motivation for my continued drive to always be learning about money and finances.

Nevertheless my education started when I finally accepted I was no longer a victim. My choices and lack of education were contributing factors to the situation I was in at the time. The amazing part of being responsible is you become empowered. You can turn it around and be better for it. 

The second step is getting it all out there. This is the part a lot of people have a hard time with…facing the music. 

Step 1: Get all your recurring bills in a list on paper or with the mailed copies in a pile. 

Step 2: Get a 30 day calendar. This could be a planner online, your phone, a piece of paper you draw on.

Step 3:Record on the due date of each bill the name of the expense and the least payment

Step 4: What is the total? Record it.

Step 5: Take a deep breath and walk away and sleep on it. 

Come back tomorrow and I’ll tell you the next steps. 

Leave me a like or a comment if this is helpful and I should continue. 

Christmas Perspective: Pursue the Positive

Christmas mornings with adult children is different. And it’s actually pretty amazing. Life is all about perspective and the story you tell yourself. I learned from the Minimalists this tool. I had planned to get on a flight to Boise. I wanted to spend Christmas morning with my grandson and our other kids. Instead, I’m sitting at a computer alone. The rest of my family sleeps. After catching COVID, I was uncertain if my husband would get it too. I also didn’t know if I would be negative by Christmas Eve. As a result, we canceled all our plans to get our refunds. 

I’m grateful for this turn of events. We at least got to have Christmas Eve with our local children because I tested Negative. I’m grateful we had the good sense to cancel early and have that money to visit at a later time. It feels like I have 5 extra days. I can do whatever I want. We were supposed to be gone for a week. The possibilities are endless. 

I think there is great value in having space for feelings. But there is power in not staying in the negative or low level feelings of sadness, loneliness, or anger. If there was something that being poor taught me it was how to move on. When you’re working to keep your lights on you don’t have time to feel much less take time to grieve. If you reach for the positive enough it starts to become second nature. 

No matter where you are this holiday season you are an empowered and valuable person. Take the time to shift the perspective if you find yourself in sadness. I’m not saying don’t feel the pain, I’m saying don’t stay there. We need you and your unique talents in this world. 

Mel Robbins’ Letting Go: A Parenting Journey

Once I watched a video of Mel Robins discussing her Letting Go theory. For a while I was applying it to my life consistently. Then I went back to my old patterns of thinking. Not completely but some ways. Yet, I didn’t realize it until recently. I watched the whole podcast episode by Mel. I understood that I had been applying it for months to my son’s and new daughter’s wedding and reception. It’s only now upon listening to the whole thing that I realize the rewards of this application. 

Before any of my children were old enough to marry, my husband and I made a decision. We would gift our children and their new spouse with a lump sum of money. The only caveat was that we both needed an invitation to the wedding. We would only gift this once in their lives for a wedding. After seeing so many skits on Tiktok of overbearing parents I was very aware of how damaging that could be. We did not want to be those kinds of inlaws.

The opportunity to put my money where my mouth is came up, as life usually does. Our son and future daughter-in-law got engaged. We gave them our congrats and a check. They found a venue. They saw an opportunity in the schedule and decided to plan a wedding and reception in around 90 days. As a parent, I instantly had reservations. I thought of all the challenges. I also considered the stress they would face in this time crunch. But it wasn’t my job to say anything. I “let them” plan and continue. This came up many times. And I tried often to keep my mouth shut or offer feedback where they make their own decisions. I’m not sure what grade they would give me. The overall consequences of “letting them” do what they wanted were surprising. They did it in a completely different way than I would have. It was wonderful. The wedding and reception were a work of art made exactly for the bride and groom. And what’s even better, we didn’t fight or bicker. We were never uninvited as so many other parents have been, I saw in my Tiktok fyp. 

The Let Them Theory is a book I’m very much eager to read on Christmas Eve when it releases. Which is tomorrow. What books are you looking ahead to reading in the coming year?

Midlife Millennial and Minimalism

I’ve done it the way “you’re supposed” to do it two times now. And both times I didn’t achieve happiness. Hi, I’m Bri Clark. I’m a forty something American. As I enter midlife with my husband, I’m doing it my own way. It starts with deconstructing all the bullshit that I’ve earlier been taught. For example, people often equate happiness and success with home ownership, the newest vehicles, clothes, and gadgets. They also strive to make the most money possible, accept every job, and charge top dollar. This often leads to sacrificing your quality, your values, and mental health. 

Yeah, I’m not interested in that anymore. 

Then what’s left?

That’s the fun part, figuring it out. We live minimal but intentional lifestyles.  That’s a very adverb driven statement. But it’s a fluid and adaptable concept of living. I’m on the verge of empty nesting. My daughters are college students and live their own lives while also living with us. Their domains are theirs to do as they see fit within reason. As they prepare for their launch, I have the chance to reimagine life with my husband. We can experience being a couple for the first time. 

The hubs and I go to the gym every day except weekends. We walk together nightly. We eat our meals at or from home. We grocery shop together. We camp together and go on trips. Basically, we are enjoying a courtship we missed out on from the beginning. We actually have been redefining family from our first date. 

In 2001, we got married. I was 18, and he was 25. He was a single father with two sons who were 6 and 3. Shortly after, we had two daughters, and we were a family of 6. As a successfully blended family, most people don’t realize my sons are not biologically mine. But being a ready-made family dismissed any opportunity to be a couple. Now we are getting the chance to do it as midlife married partners. And it’s fun as hell. 

But in the beginning, we did everything we were supposed to in order to level up from the generation before. And we lost it all only to rebuild again. 

In 2024 We achieved almost every goal we set out to achieve. We paid off $100,000 in debt. We donated, sold, or discarded 50% of our possessions in our home and in our businesses. We went on six camping trips. We dropped our outgoing expenses in our personal and business expenses by 40%. We built several homes and additions for clients. We did kitchen and bathroom renovations. We also focused on the health and lifestyle goals I mentioned above. 2024 was a wonderful year of transformation. We found a life of great joy with simple and intentional daily choices. We want to take that same energy going into 2025.

In 2025, we have specific goals. We want to pay off all our automobile debts. We also aim to have a larger savings of operating capital. We plan to build 4 houses and buy our own lot. We will build a house to sell, rent, or live in ourselves. Additionally, we aim to build 4 additions and continue to do kitchen, bath, and home renovations. We are maintaining our healthy lifestyles and building on them. We plan to go on 6 camp trips. We also want to take a trip to Europe. Additionally, we hope to visit our kids in Idaho and our grandson. We seek to become a certified woman-owned business with  Bri the Builder. We hope to launch Bri Excavations and make a profit. Additionally, we aim to become a professional blogger and write and publish a book.

Welcome to our journey through my eyes. We are ending 2024 and going into 2025. What are some things you accomplished in 2024?