Baby Steps to Better Finances

As a dietitian, I spend a lot of time simply providing counsel to others and helping them figure out their diet and lifestyle plan. I now consider a financial planner the dietitian for my bank account: cleaning it up and helping me stick to a plan. Sometimes it's hard for me to admit there are things I don't fully have under control and instead of seeking help I waste time trying to figure it out on my own only to find out I need an outside, truly educated voice to weigh in. Unsolicited advice is always unwelcomed, but good, sought after advice is key! After all, there is wisdom in counsel.

1) Student Loan Forgiveness

I fell in love with Tania after the first 3 minutes of our meeting because she told me about a the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program for federal student loans. These have been a financial stressor for me for some time so it felt so great to learn there is help. How does no one tell you these things?!

 Basically, if you work in public service (a government organization, or a non profit organization/501(c)3) you may qualify to have your federal student loans forgiven after 10 years of employment and payments. Something to keep in mind when applying for loans as a college student or when looking for a job. Sallie Mae/Navient and other private loans do not qualify...would have been good to know when looking for loans in college. For more information, or to see if your loans qualify, visit this Federal Student Aid website.

2) Financial Planning

I always hear mixed things- should you trade your car in before it loses value or should you drive it until it quits?

Tania says that once a car is paid off, drive that car until "the wheels fall off", but continue to make those monthly "car payments" to yourself in a separate savings account. Then, eventually, you will have the funds to buy your next car with cash and avoid taking out a car loan. The goal is to not have a car loan. She solidified our friendship when she told me she would rather spend money traveling than paying loans for car companys. Preach it, sister.

What about savings? She recommends starting a "baby emergency savings account" of around $1,000 to begin with and keep adding to the account in small increments with a long-term goal of 3-6 months worth of bills and expenses in savings just in case something happens. That one seems like the hardest goal to meet to me!

Finally, she recommends paying off credit card debt and having 2-3 lines of open credit to aid in credit scores. Student loans count, so with that, one credit card is plenty. She also suggests not cancelling already opened credit cards, unless they carry a large annual fee. Lastly, she reminded me that just because a limit is set, doesn't mean we should be using it. She recommended no more than 30% of credit card limit being used. For example, with a $10,000 credit limit, $3,000 should be the max one puts on the card in order to not adversely affect credit scores. Who knew?!

3) Money Management

Here are the baby steps Tania (CFP) laid out for me during our visit:

1) Track your income and spending. How can you change if you don't know what you are already doing? Funny- I use this in my nutrition counseling, but never carried it over into finances.
Tania says there are two parts to money management:

1.  Creating a spending plan to account for every dollar you earn- you are assigning your money to different categories. She also noted to not make your topics too specific. By keeping them broad, you can track more easily. For example, coffee, date night, and movies can be grouped into "entertainment".
2. Then, track your spending to make sure that you are on track and to see areas where you may be overspending.
• First step in tracking is to track your spending for one month using a tracking worksheet.
• Then, after one month, use the worksheet to set up your preliminary budget.  Tania reminded me to be patient and that we will likely have to adjust, but before you know it you will be a budgeting guru.

Mint.com is a great app and website that I have already been using to help budget. But Tania told me to watch the youtube tutorial to fully understand how Mint can help. Did I mention how much I loved this woman?

It was so very helpful and while it can all seem a bit overwhelming, her step by step plan encouraged me to take it one step at a time. 

My current job supplies this service for free, which is a huge blessing. Check into your own employer to see if financial planning is an option and visit Financial Finesse online for more information. After all, being well is more than just diet and exercise!

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RD Times Three

Have you ever wondered what a dietitian eats? What about three of them?

If so, you're in luck! I reached out to my favorite running buddies and dietitians Kathleen and Virginia to show you guys their versions of healthy lifestyles too!

Although we have a lot in common, we all have slightly different situations that contribute to what we eat and the groceries we buy:

• Kathleen lives at home with 3 siblings and her parents.
• Virginia lives with a roommate (in their new home!).
• I live with a boy (I recently had to start buying meat!).

Whatever stage of life you may be in, we hope you can relate. Having 3 food and nutrition experts dishing on their daily meals seems like the best way to make nutrition accessible to everyone. We hope you will find inspiration for your own healthy eating goals. We hope you will realize dietitians are people too and sometimes we drink diet soda and eat cake! We hope you will take things we eat and incorporate them into your own healthy lifestyle.

The more healthy eating blogs I find, the more I read about hemp seeds, vegan, vegetarian, super organic this and that, Paleo, gluten-free and every other food or diet "trend" you can think of. While we are not against any of those things, us three RD's have no dietary restrictions (so no medical reason to avoid gluten), we are active (exercising at least 5-6 times a week), we are on a budget (let's just say we aren't celeb dietitian status), we have a lot of nutrition education (Master's degrees), and believe all food groups can be enjoyed (even dessert from time to time). We hope to share a normal, meat eating, no elimination diet (except sugar sweetened drinks of course!), real life, not breaking the bank, get out and exercise, daily lifestyle that we intentionally create day in and day out. Won't you join us?

Let's start by checking out what Virginia ate Sunday.

I started with delicious and creative Hash Brown, Egg White Nests from SkinnyTaste and rounded the meal out with some fruit with a dollop of Marzetti cream cheese fruit dip.

For lunch, a salad is often a go-to and this one did not disappoint. Salad with mixed greens, apple, craisins, cherry tomatoes, almonds, blue cheese, chopped onion and Ken’s Light Raspberry Walnut Vinaigrette salad dressing.  In my opinion the key to a good salad is chopping it up using kitchen shears b/c it helps mix it up and makes it easier to eat. 

Afternoon snack:  Fruit and fruit dip (leftover from breakfast)

Dinner: {not pictured} Whole wheat spaghetti noodles with meat sauce (made with lean beef) + side salad (mixed greens, bell peppers, onions, cherry tomatoes, cucumber, light Swiss cheese (chopped) and light thousand island salad dressing.

As far as exercise and hydration:

I ran 4 miles and walked my sister’s dog for about 20 minutes  (it was so hot!)

I probably drank about 4 liters of water throughout the day and a vitamin water zero.

I had coffee with breakfast and 2 diet cokes throughout the day…lots of caffeine, but we are keeping it real here! Gosh I drink a lot during the day…doesn’t seem like THAT much until I write it down!  
Sometimes we don't realize how much we eat and drink until we actually have to tell someone else about it which is why I would recommend keeping a food diary every once in a while--just to touch base with reality!

Food intake contributed by Virginia Anderson, MS, RD, LD. Keep checking back for more from Virginia!

Share your favorite breakfast below!

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