McKinzie Bean has been blogging since June 2012 and started Moms Make Cents in June of 2016 to help teach moms how to build profitable blogs and businesses so they could have the freedom to stay home with their kiddos.
Here is McKinzie’s story…
When my husband and I got married in 2012 we didn’t have a cent to our name, we actually were thousands in debt. We had just bought a clunker, 1992 Camry for $1,800 and that pretty much cleared us out.
We were both college students at the time. My husband worked full-time making $11 an hour and I was in school full-time and looking for a part-time job. During the first few years of our marriage, we were very frugal and I was always looking for extra ways to make money. Because of that, we were able to pay off the $13,000 in student loans my husband had accumulated and graduate debt free. It was such a freeing feeling.
However, in 2015 more financial turbulence hit. We were expecting our first baby and I had left my job so I could be a stay at home mom. My husband worked in the oil industry and it took a huge hit. Immediately his pay was cut by a third, his company began doing furloughs and eventually laid off 60% of the workforce. We were panicked that he would lose his job right as we were supposed to welcome this baby into the world and decided we would move in with family until things stabilized.
I desperately wanted to stay at home with my baby but had a hard time finding jobs for stay at home moms. So that first year of motherhood I started three businesses to help supplement my husband’s income. Little did I know that those businesses would be the catalyst that changed our financial lives.
While my husband continued to work at his job, I would stay up late at night side hustling trying to bring in extra money. Eventually, word got out to my husband’s co-workers about the businesses I was building and their wives wanted to know how to too.
I would stay up late at night side hustling trying to bring in extra money.
I spent hours writing up emails to them outlining how to start their own businesses.
One night it dawned on me. If there were this many people in my town that needed help with this, how many more people could this help online?
That is when I decided to start a blog.
Shortly after our baby’s first birthday, I launched my site. I had a new found passion helping other moms make money from home. Many nights I stayed up late working as I balanced my new baby, new blog, and current freelance social media clients.
Less than one year after starting my blog I was making significantly more money than I made at my previous full-time job and replaced my husband’s income as well. We decided it was time for my husband to leave his job too.
Less than one year after starting my blog I was making significantly more money than I made at my previous full-time job and replaced my husband’s income as well.
For the next two years, we worked on our businesses, welcomed our second baby, and my husband went back to school and finished his MBA.
Our experience as entrepreneurs and his new accolades opened up the doors for him to get his dream job with a great company. I now manage the businesses from home with the help of a great team we have built over the last few years.
Living frugally (no matter our income) and starting our businesses took us from literally square one to being very comfortable financially. Other than our home we are completely debt free and are preparing to start building our rental property portfolio.
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Pinyo Bhulipongsanon is the owner of Moolanomy Personal Finance and a Realtor® licensed in Virginia and Maryland. Over the past 20 years, Pinyo has enjoyed a diverse career as an investor, entrepreneur, business executive, educator, financial literacy author, and Realtor®.
Loved this article. McKinzie is such an inspiration. Thanks for this piece.