Maddie Baker is a 27-year-old first-grade teacher from Virginia. Having lived for years with the burden of impulse purchasing, she has turned herself around in extraordinary ways. With an annual salary of $63,000, Baker reflects on her journey from living paycheck to paycheck to establishing a more secure financial foundation.
When she started teaching six years ago, baker was making around $50,000 a year. Instead, her formative years were filled with “horrible cycles” of financial anxiety — largely due to spending done on a whim. Whenever she had hard days at school, Laura would usually come home looking for comfort and would turn to retail therapy.
“Any day that I had a hard day at teaching, I would immediately go from my job to a store,” Baker stated. This behavior consumed all of her paycheck with credit card payments. With the high cost, she had nothing to put towards savings or emergency funds.
Baker remembers the impact all of this had on her health. “I remember just waking up every single day, and the stress of finances was just really getting me down,” she shared. Her extravagant lifestyle ruined her financially. Experiences with programs, partners, and people affected her mental health because she was always under duress from the threat of being broke.
Three years into her teaching career, it was time for a change, Baker concluded. As she started to get a handle on her financial picture, she started to spend more intentionally. Through cultivating new habits and hobbies, she was able to respond to stress through healthier behaviors without as much urge to shop.
When her job prospects fell through, Baker began tutoring kids in her summers, selling her clothes, and even donating plasma to make up the difference. It was her hard work that allowed her to deserve the lifestyle she was living. They transformed her understanding of how to handle finances. “All of these things happened because I had the mindset of, ‘I need to save more money, and I need to spend less money,’” Baker explained.
A turning point on her path to financial wellness came when she got a tax refund. This surprise money made it possible for her to pay down her credit card bill without using her regular paycheck. This achievement became an important inflection point in her life. She’s no longer left to hope that there is enough money in her checking account on credit card due date each month to pay the bill without counting on income not yet earned.
Baker has found a different way to look at finance. Today, she’s able to concentrate on creating an emergency fund and saving up for her future home. She spends money more intentionally and stops herself from buying things on impulse.
Keith Barron, a financial advisor and author of the blog DollarSprout, says spending self-awareness is key to any sound financial strategy. “One of the biggest things [you can do is take a beat],” he advises individuals seeking to improve their financial habits. This final strategy nudges people to think twice before buying things, helping people to be more intentional and aware about their spending choices.
Baker’s change is a testament and inspiration to those who find themselves unable to afford the same financial burden. Through these proactive choices and steps towards improving her money management, she has established a more secure future for herself. Her story serves as an important reminder about the power of building better habits, and consciously staying focused on your spending with purpose and intent.