Hi, friend! I’m Jessi, and I’m so happy that you’re here!
So, just who is this crazy girl sharing her family’s dirty laundry for the world to see?
Okay, so I don’t exactly share my dirty laundry but I do share my family’s real budget along with our real life successes and failures with money for the entire world to see. So, why?
Because I want to encourage others to live life by a budget and to make managing their money a priority in their lives and the best way to do that is to showcase our little family’s life on a budget. I even wrote a whole book dedicated to walking others through the ins-and-outs of managing their money well. You can check out Getting Good with Money here.
After failing with money in my early adult life, I was determined to accept the challenge God had given me and turn my life around. My hubs and I have paid off over $55,000 of debt in 17 months. And in January of 2019, we FINALLY became 100% debt-free when we paid off our mortgage! You can read how we paid off over $5,000 of debt in one month here.
I’m from the great state of Georgia, born and raised. I’m the best “cooker” in the world according to my kiddos and I have my mom and Grandmother to thank for raising me in the kitchen. I grew up driving trucks (my first car was a lifted Dodge Ram…) and spending Sundays after church driving through the mud bogs. #bestchildhoodever
I graduated from Kennesaw State University in 2012 with my accounting degree. Although I am grateful for my degree and the many lessons learned from holding down a full-time career as a Project Manager and a full class load, I wish I had been more patient in earning my degree so I wouldn’t have taken out student loans.
I take my Catholic faith pretty seriously – even though when I married my husband, he didn’t believe in God at all. Thankfully, my husband is now a Believer and you can read more about our struggles with faith in our early days of marriage here.
My Family
We’re a one-income family, living off the fruit of my husband’s hard work providing for us. We have three kiddos – Conner (7), Collin (6), and Charlotte (4), and a rescue dog named Belle.
My husband owns his own remodeling company (Southern Craft Remodeling if you’re nosy 😉) here in Woodstock, GA. And because we are both self-employed, we don’t have health insurance. Yes, you read that right. We do not have health insurance – this post here has all the details on what we use instead.
My husband, Pat, and I married in 2009 in our $500 wedding ceremony and have been working on sticking to our promise of life lived well together forever.
Conner
Collin
Charlotte
My “Professional” Stuff
In the “professional” world, I’m a personal finance coach, writer, speaker, and sought-after money expert. But, really I’m a girl that’s failed a lot with money and loves to help others. I take the whole “leading from the trenches” thing seriously so that’s what I strive to do here.
I run my business from home which allows me the best of both worlds – earning a full-time income and staying home with my three children. If you want to know more about blogging and earning an income from home head here for my blogging related posts.
My Mission
My mission is simple. I want to serve others by helping them realize that money doesn’t control you – you control your money. It isn’t always easy to regain control, but it’s 100% doable. I know because I’ve failed more times than I can count with money. My platform is dedicated to helping other families out there that are looking for a pathway towards financial freedom. My goal is to empower, encourage, and educate others on how they too can achieve financial success.
I would love to hear from you! Feel free to email me at jessi@jessifearon.com.
Random Facts About Me:
1. I completely failed the parallel parking part of my driving test and I still can’t parallel park to save my life.
2. I have an irrational fear of cockroaches. Seriously. Spiders, I’m good with. A cockroach and I’ll burn the house down to get away.
3. You cannot play a Garth Brooks song in my presence and expect me not to sing…especially when that song is “Friends in Low Places”… as is evident by my husband and me…
4. We are on baby steps 4 – Yes, I know we completed BS 6 before BS 4. You can read why we went out of order here.
5. Homemade popcorn is my favorite food.
6. I would have a zillion children if my hubs would let me.
7. Accounting was the last thing that I thought I would get a degree in. It took me working in the “real world” to realize how much I loved accounting.
8. I suck at sports. I’m the worse person to have on your team because I’m so not athletically inclined.
9. I’m a huge history nerd and could spend hours discussing history with you.
10. I’m super impatient. God is teaching me a serious lesson in patience through motherhood.
11. My favorite movie of all time is Tremors. I know, I know, everyone thinks I’m crazy but I love that movie!
12. I’ll take a beer over wine any day.
13. I’m terrified of public speaking…so that’s why I torture myself and do it anyway. (The picture below is from my first “professional” speaking gig at FinCon15.)
14. My favorite smells in the world are campfires, fresh coffee, and little baby feet. 🙂
15. I have only been outside the USA twice — once to St. Lucia and once to Mexico.
I’m also a proud member of the #SmartMoneySquad! Find me over at Go Banking Rates!