This is my first post as Sovereign Squirrel! Hello, and welcome to my blog 🙂
My intentions for this blog are to share my journey (quasi-anonymously) as I get serious about my personal finance and general levelling up in life, whether through relationships, career, or personal development.
I anticipate much of this blog will revolve around personal finance and personal goals (I have a lot of those!).
So why a blog?
Because I’m a bit scattered! And I have lots to learn. This blog will help me stay accountable and stay aware of my mindset and goals.
I don’t come from a financially savvy background. Growing up, my family never talked about money, so I never learned the skills to stay out of debt, save, or build wealth. Mix this with a dash of my proclivity for disorganization, and my natural recipe for financial stability leaves much to be desired. But things are changing!
I’ve learned a lot over the years, (much of it due to my love of Gail Vaz Oxlade) and I’ve paid off debts, grown my current net worth to $30K, and increased my yearly salary to $80K in 2022. It’s not a ground-breaking start, but it certainly could be worse. As I understand it, taking control of finances starts with debt reduction, moves into saving, then ends with wealth accumulation/investments. I feel like I’ve finally gotten a handle on the first two, and am ready for the last stage.
Why “sovereign squirrel”?
Besides the obvious squirreling away of money, I thought a squirrel was a fitting symbol for this blog since, to me, they represent the creatures that live amongst us who are always getting stuff done, regardless of the trivial concerns and pressures of modern life all around them. They seem to always have something on the go; always gathering, chasing, building, or playing. I’ve rarely seen a squirrel who wasn’t on a mission, and that’s the type of squirrelly focus and energy I want to channel with this blog ?. And the “sovereign” part comes in because we are each responsible for our own financial, mental, and emotional well-being, and independence is what I’m striving for in these domains.
Who am I and what do I want?
I’m a woman living in Canada, I just turned 38, and I’m currently writing anonymously because I’ll be sharing personal financial numbers and candid career info so anonymity seems smart, at least for now. My partner recently moved in with me, and I work full-time in a job that I love. Even though I love my job, I still long for a more entrepreneurial avenue for my income and have some dreams that I want to turn into full-blown plans.
What are some of my goals? Through this blog, I want to…
- Learn more about investing (specifically index funds and ETFs, which I now know provide much better returns than the traditional mutual funds I have currently)
- Learn more about TFSAs and RRSPs and set up an automated savings system
- Save $1 million dollars for retirement (I know this is a traditional benchmark and not exactly sure if it applies to me, so I’ll revise if I need to)
- Learn to live more frugally and budget with the best of them
- Determine whether home ownership is suitable for me and my partner
- Continue growing my career by taking new risks and opportunities
- Develop myself as a non-fiction writer and pitch several outlets a year
- Develop myself as a fiction writer and sell my first book
- Keep growing my side hustle gig
- Connect to others who are doing similar things
Those are the broad strokes for now. Please say hello! And drop a link to your blog as well.
Happy saving,
Sovereign Squirrel
