About

There is nothing wrong in wanting to get rich. The desire for riches is really the desire for a richer, fuller, and more abundant life; and that desire is praise worthy. – Wallace D Wattles

Hi and thanks for reading my blog. My name is Ariel, and, as all of us do, I have many roles; artist, mother, wife, full time worker-bee, business owner… you get the gist.

This blog is dedicated towards keeping myself on track and charting my progress towards living an intentional life.  This involves finding balance between many areas including my finances, happiness, and overall state of being. My goal is to one day be financially free, because I believe that will allow me to make more of the choices I want to make. What does being financially free mean? It means that you can pay your monthly expenses without lifting a finger. (View my definition of financial freedom post for more information.) That the income you make from your investment choices is large enough to cover your expenses. If you live modestly, this doesn’t mean that you have to be a millionaire to be financially free. It just means that you don’t have to work to ‘pay the bills’ or ’survive’. I want to work, but I want to choose the work that I do out of desire rather than necessity. That is not going to happen overnight, but I still intend to make choices that will improve both my life, my family’s life, as well as our financial success. I write 2-3 times a week, whenever I can get a block of time.

Wealth and greed are two entirely different things. I believe that greed is often confused with wealth and those that attain wealth often get consumed by greed and forget their purpose.

Our Story

My husband, Luke and I have a little darling 23 month old daughter, Sydney, and, like many families, we have managed to land ourselves smack in the middle of the typical American debt trap. My husband built our house, and is finishing his bachelor’s degree as a full time student. We have a mortgage that is more than we want. Plus we have a car loan, and childcare expenses and health insurance and car insurance and I suppose we have to eat too right? Not to mention we would like to have fun on a rare occasion. Up until a few months ago, I have felt little control or power over the situation, so as such, we had let it go and weren’t managing any of it well. I work full time as a web producer and also work as a consultant on the side, and I would love one day to have a little more time for being a mother! Well, we’ve woken up and we are committed to actively taking the power back and managing our life. This blog isn’t only about getting out of debt, because I don’t believe that ALL debt is bad debt. Its about being aware, making conscious choices, and charting my progress along the way.

To begin my journey, I wrote a list of some of the key answers to the question: “What do I want?” Here are my answers in no particular order:

• I want to be FREE to move my life forward
• I want to get my POWER back
• I want to WRITE
• I want to LOVE what I do for a job
• I want to feel comfortable and at PEACE
• I want to take CONTROL of my own destiny
• I want to spend more QUALITY time with my family and activities I want to do
• I want to find SUSTAINABLE happiness
• I want to live an INTENTIONAL life

Professionally speaking, here’s my short bio:

Ariel specializes in web design and online marketing in Boulder, Colorado. She works for a local credit union as thier Web Producer and does freelance design work. She drives measurable sales with online marketing programs. She has been featured on popular personal finance sites such as Wisebread.com, and written articles about online marketing for trade magazines like CU Times. Ariel is a Google AdWords Qualified Individual, has an Online Marketing Certification and has a Bachelors of Science in Business Administration with an emphasis in Marketing from the Leeds School of Business at the University of Colorado.

Disclaimer:

All information provided in this blog is the author’s opinion only. I make no claims of knowing the ultimate answers, and if you choose to follow my suggestions, opinions or advice it is at your own risk. Please read the full disclosure and privacy page.

Thanks for reading!

Ariel