Hey! Welcome to Moneylifewax.com, my name is Josh.
I am committed to helping you make money, figuring out your finances, and living a life you love… let's get started!
I am not quite sure how you found my blog, but if you're looking for help with making money, paying off globs of debt, and improving yourself in 2020 – you're at the right place!
My only goal is to offer you some perspective when it comes to life and to help you adult like a pro!
Like most millennials, for the better part of my 20's I sucked with money and I wanted to get better. In 2015, my wife and I had $300,000 in student loans. Fast forward to 2020, we became debt free after learning how to separate our immediate desires from our long term goals!
I believe Money Life Wax shines when it comes to sharing perspective on life, not just financial advice!
Want to skip my story and get right to the money stuff?
- The MLW Guide to Making Money
- The MLW Guide to Paying Off Debt (Like $300,000)
- The MLW Guide to Saving Money
Money Life Wax will help you with:
- Getting better with money (Make it, Save it, Pay it off)
- Improve your life (Create positive habits, be nicer, & crush it)
- Be more awesome while hitting you with some truth bombs
To help you get started, check out the Money & Life Facebook Group where you can talk about money and life (hence the overly creative name) while hanging with like-minded people!
Also, let's connect on Instagram where I share some pretty funny money related posts and my progress with running 2 miles daily!
But at this point, you might be wondering… what in the world can this guy help me with? Good question, here is a little about me:
My Quick Story:
- I graduated from West Virginia University in 2009
- Like most millennials, I faced an unstable job market, but I got lucky and…
- Landed a job as a teacher and high school coach (and loved it) then something happened…
- In September of 2012, my mom passed after her short battle with ovarian cancer at just 51 and this changed me for the better (eventually) but,
- For some reason, in 2014 I bought a brand new $42,000 truck and I had a soon to be fiance' with over $275,000 in student loans.
- Prior to getting married, my wife and I had a combined negative six-figure net worth
- After seeing my mom leave this world way too early, feeling financially stressed all the time, and having close family members struggle with addiction, I faced the proverbial fork in the road…
What is Money Life Wax all about?
In a second I will elaborate on the “Fork in the road” and let you know how the rest of the story unfolds, but let's talk about you for a second…
I have come to realize there are only a few things we all want in life, and those things include some combination of time, choice, and control. Money just happens to dictate how each of those plays out. Hence the whole Money, Life, and Wax thing:
Money
- You can save more & spend less – but the key is making more money.
- Paying off debt is easier with more money
- Traveling is possible with making more income
- My goal is to help you figure this piece out!
Life
- I am not a life coach & I am not here to Tony Robbins you.
- But things like time, travel, family, friends, health, spiritual values, relationshps are all dictated by our thoughts & habits
- I like offering life persepctive (take it or leave it)
Wax
- Wax is what you want it to be, its random.
- The Whole Ball of Wax
- I have a tendency to be edgey, but only because I am honest
- I used to try to make everyone happy – but myself.
- Now I share how not to give A.F.
In the infamous words of Tupac –
“Don't believe everything you see: Real Eyes, Realize, Real Lies.”
Did I just really quote Tupac? Yup.
Wisdom is taking what others have experienced and learning from it and recognizing that we are not perfect, but we can always improve.
There is no one proven path to happiness and success because let's face it, everyone's definition of happiness and success is different. So whether I can help you or not is to be determined.
But here is what I recommend to help you get started:
one. Set some goals.
Cliche yes, but setting goals is something we all need to do to help stay the course. Without goals, we drift. I can convince myself anything is a good idea, and I am sure you can too which is why it's important to:
two. Assess some areas in your life.
It's ok to look at your life and make a quick assessment. Something simple like:
- Am I happy with my job?
- Do my finances stress me out?
- Health, am I healthy?
- Habits, do I have positive habits?
One of my favorite books that helped me personally do this is Atomic Habits. << Highly recommend.
three. Figure out a few ways to make extra money.
I know people who blow their money, I know people who make minimum wage and I know a few multi-millionaires. Here is what I have gathered:
- You should save
- You should cut back in some areas to give yourself options
- But most of your energy should go to making more money.
Making more money is expotenital. There is only so much cutting and cupon clipping one person can do. The more you create – the more options you have.
Sure, downloading a survey app on your phone is a way to make money, but I would recommend starting a blog or getting my guide below to make some real money:
four. Stop comparing yourself to others.
Remember how I said I like to keep it real? Well, I landed my first big media appearance with Market Watch after I wrote this article about not comparing yourself.
If you're busy making everyone else happy but the person in the mirror you will never live a life true to yourself.
five. Just take action.
I have had readers, friends, emails, social media followers – you name it – ask the action question.
“How do I take action in my life?”
My response is always the same – one step at a time. You will never make it to California if you wait for all the lights to turn green!
Every now and then I send an email with some actionable tipe to help people get out of their comfort zone and go for more!
six. Have fun!
I can't express enough what just choosing to have fun in everything has done for my mental state. Whether you want to binge a podcast or join the trip of a month club – whatever you do – just have fun with it and keep in mind fun doesn't mean being constantly entertained.
The top regrets of the dying:
- Not living a life true to themselves
- Not letting themselves be happy
Too many people walk around wasting all their time dwelling on the past or anxious about the future. I can say that because oftentimes that was me.
But I am here to let you know that ^^ is not the way to live your life. I hope to encourage you to have fun in all that you do… even if that means impulsively starting a blog like I did a few years back….
The Rest of My Story
As promised, here is the rest of my story:
The fork in the road came a few years after my mom's passing. I was doing everything I was told that would create happiness and success. The standard,
“Go to school, get good grades, work hard and you will be happy.”
I followed the traditional advice but after seeing my mom pass at such a young age after dedicating her entire life to her kids, I knew I was capable of more.
With my wife, we made a pact to do three things:
- Stop working 60 hours a week (Athletic Director and DPT hours)
- Stop comparing ourselves to others
- Start taking our finances & student loan debt serious
I wish I didn't have to expierence the loss of a parent to have my epiphany (if you want to call it that) but I had two options – change or remain the same. So my journey started.
- We got serious about paying off our student loans and we paid off $200,000 in four years
- I wrote my first blog post sharing our story to inspire others
- Since that pretty crappy blog post, I somehow managed to get featured on some big publications like Forbes, Business Insider, Yahoo, Market Watch, and Huffington Post (but I am normal a.f.)
Rest assured, that whole as seen on isn't really my thing, however, it does speak volumes to the fact that since starting Money Life Wax we have helped a lot of people pay off debt an make more money. I have a personal goal to help 20 people make $1,000 extra per month or start their debt freedom journey… every year!
Our financial journey is interesting to say the least:
- Today as I write this, we have just $60,000 in student loans. With no car payments, no credit card payments, and just a mortgage – we plan on being debt free in 2020
- I can tell you taking every step to get financially healthy is worth it!!
- I do not give you the standard: Budget Better, Stop Eating Out, & Follow the Dave Ramsey Baby Step finance advice
- I really like to eat out, like a lot. Like all the time. I am motivated to side hustle just so I can eat our more and travel
- I want to be an awesome dad and husband
- I have some unique perspectives I share:
Josh's Perspective on Money.
- Being frugal shouldn't be a permanent state of mind, but temporary
- Figure how to make money work for you or work for money forever
- You should take your finances serious so you have options to do the things that make you happy
- In 2020 – the world of finance is changing more than ever.
Josh's Perspective on Life.
- You get what you speak
- Action cures all fears
- Our comfort zone is what holds most of us back
- I like to help the people who have been classified/or classify themselves as unworthy, toxic, anxious, depressed, unhappy – remember no labels allowed!
- I am not here to judge or condemn and I recongize everyone has issues, I like to share how I dealt with my own self-doubts and some losses in life
Josh's Perspective Wax (Health & Randomness).
- Health is wealth, I believe getting healthy in all areas – financially, relationships, physically, mentally, what you eat – that is “The Whole Ball of Wax.”
- I like to run 2 miles every day – and I have done so every day in 2020
- I think we should constantly challenge ourselves whether it is mentally or physically
- Memes, social media, and entertainment are all good within reason
So my biggest challenge for YOU is to go do what it takes to live life on YOUR terms because remember:
Things in life are always more enjoyable when they're earned!
Other Random Tidbits from Money Life Wax:
Social media:
I have three instragram accounts; a personal account, the Money Life Wax account and a running acount where I talk about running two miles daily!
And lot's of funny Coronavirus Memes… and Tiger King Memes… and well yeah!
Old Student Loan Screenshots:
Lauren and I combined went to college for 15 years and graduated with over $300,000 in student loans. 87% of that came from her getting her doctorate over an 8-year time frame, so these screenshots are somewhat sentimental as they remind us of our journey:
My favorite Side Hustles:
I think blogging, leveraging the internet and social media is your best bet for starting a side hustle to make a $1,000 or more a month. You can bootstrap a side hustle with internet access, file an LLC and start something in a matter of one hour.
Typically, I recommend you look into making money with a computer because it's flexible but I have also seen people create success with traditional businesses like roofing, gutters, and landscaping.
Landscaping, flipping things online, real estate – you name it – can all be very lucrative.
Personal Favorite Money Tools, Apps & Guides (I Use)
- Excel budget templates like this one
- Mint to track budgeting
- Personal Capital to track networth
- Trim to weed out subscriptions
- I used to rent rooms out, the easiest passive income ever.
- My brain
- Strava and my Apple Watch for running
- Airpods – a must. Team 1st gen.
- Blogging tools include Bluehost & Google Drive (that is all you need to start)
Free Money Guides I have made:
Personal Favorite Blog Posts:
- We Drive a $5,000 Kia and Are In The Top 10%
- Stop Making Money Complicated
- Dear Parents: Stop Ruining Sports
- How Much Should You Have Saved By 30
- Entitled Kids Make Financially Entitled Adults
- My Book List
- Blogging Pitfalls to Avoid
- YOUR Real Hourly Wage
Your future self will be glad you stopped by 🙂
-Josh aka Mr. Money Life Wax
P.S. if you want to know anything else email is great, but social media works best!