Hi, my name is Whitney Bonds and I left my corporate job to
become a stay-at-home mother
and in the process, I figured out how to make money from home with my family.
Now, as a personal finance blogger, I show other moms how to do the same.
I never thought I could be a stay-at-home mom because I
always thought I have too much ambition to be a stay-at-home mom.
But when I had my babies, my life changed.
I was a corporate marketing manager for a manufacturer
when I just had my son. I was still being able to live my dream
of being in the corporate life.
But when I became pregnant with my second child, I had this mindset
shift that I no longer really cared to climb the corporate ladder.
I really wanted to just be home with my kids. Knowing
that I wanted to quit my job
by the time I had my daughter, my husband and I started saving all of my checks
and trying to live off one income, just to see that this is
something that we could really do.
And we really had to cut back.
That's really what gave me the motivation to figure out how to supplement my income,
because I wanted to maintain the kind of lifestyle that we were currently living.
I decided to just reach out to work-from-home moms and see what
they do, how much they make,
and then I documented everything and created a website.
These are really questions that I was asking for myself.
I think the success stories from these moms are really what is encouraging other
moms to say that, "Hey, I can do this too."
I launched my blog in January of 2018. I had my daughter on March 12 and I took
an extended maternity leave through FMLA to really see if I could work from home
with kids, with my website. Then, in April, I received a commission.
That gave me the confidence to be able to say, "Okay, I can go ahead and quit my job."
Since we had saved up at least $20,000 during the nine month period
of me being with child, we could live off of that until my blog starts to take off.
I only made $5,000 my first year, but I knew how I could make money
and that it would take time.
I really worked hard during nap time, early mornings, and at night to
put in a foundation to my blog and trying to figure out how to make it work.
Then, in June, I took this SEO course that really helped me
understand how to write my articles,
and it really helped bring a lot of volume to my website. Six
months of learning how to do that,
my blog just skyrocketed.
The next year, I was able to turn my blog into a six figure
business. Being a stay-at-home
mom, you definitely have to learn how to budget.
Especially with us living on one income at the time when I was pregnant
with my daughter, I really had to figure out how we could survive.
So just working toward paying off our debt
and then to free us to be able to invest more and just have a
disposable income for whatever unexpected costs that we may incur.
That is really what prompted me to get interested in the personal finance
and I knew that it was something that moms have to deal with every day.
The feeling that I had when I became debt- free is something that I want everyone
to experience. Becoming debt-free has actually made me more frugal because I
know that I don't want to ever go back to that place that we were in before.
So I really wanted to share my story and be an example for moms to show
them that they can do this too.
On the website, we have over 25 ways that moms are making money from home
today. We have success stories for each one of those,
so moms can really see what's right for them and their family,
Along with making money from home,
you also want to make sure that you're saving money too, because
a great way to become debt-free is to cut expenses. Especially
when it comes to your grocery bill.
I know that for me and my family, we were
spending over a thousand dollars per month, but I really have been able
to narrow down our grocery budget significantly by just doing things
like shopping our pantry first. Even things like cable, we were able to cut
a hundred dollars per month by just calling to reduce our monthly bill.
Do you have any interest rates with your credit cards? Work with them
to try and negotiate that to a lower percentage rate, and then invest.
Now I highly recommend investing in index funds because an index fund is
something that you don't have to be an expert. It's low-cost. It's low-maintenance
and it's a great way to build your portfolio in the stock market.
Being a work-at-home
mom, my life really changed because working my corporate job, I wasn't
really there for the big milestones for my son because I was always at work.
So I think now that I'm home, we have an even a greater relationship.
I think it's really cool that I'm able to work from home with my kids
because they get to see that you can build your own business and still
really be there at the same time.
Especially for my daughter.
I love that she can see that mommy is able to do it, and that she can do it too.
And I'm so grateful for them, because had I not had kids, I would have never
had a reason to build a business.
So I really dedicate all of my success to my kids.
And I can never have imagined doing this without them.