I know what you’re probably thinking, “Khadija graduated from school, moved to a cool new city, started a fancy job and forgot all about Money Honey.” Well, I am here to tell you that though it may seem like that on social media, that is the furthest thing from the truth. It is true that I graduated from school, I did move to a pretty cool new city (Brooklyn), I have started a new job (not sure if I would call it fancy) but I absolutely have not forgotten about Money Honey.
The absolute truth is that after college, life happens. I went from being a college student, having a pretty good understanding of my goals, aspirations and capabilities, to being a lost adult. I was fortunate enough to know where I would be employed when I graduated college, which made the transition easier but for the first time in my life I was starting something that didn’t have a pre-defined end. In elementary school, I was striving for middle school, in middle school I was working towards high school, in high school I was working to get into a good college and in college I was working towards graduating with a well paying job. After graduation was the first time in my life, I didn’t actually know what I was working towards.
It was a shock, a shock that no one really tells you exist. I went from being the queen of goal setting; to not really knowing what goals I should create for myself. I’ve always been big on setting goals, and it was something that I did at the beginning of anything new (a new year, semester, internship etc.), but for some reason I could not get a grasp on it after college. I can remember sitting down during the first few weeks of my new job and trying to write out some goals for myself. I WAS STUMPED! I literally could only come up with “get a good performance review.” Sure, that’s a goal, but for me it wasn’t a good enough goal. And it was only one. It was absolutely the only goal that I could think of, for my new professional life.
On top of all of this, I decided to start studying to be a Certified Public Accountant (CPA). A CPA is the highest designation you can receive as an accountant. You have to have a certain amount of college credits, a year of work experience in accounting and you have to pass 4 hard ass exams in order to receive the certification (it is similar to how lawyers have to pass the BAR exam to become a lawyer, accountants have to be pass these exams to become “official” accountants). Why did I decide to sign myself up for this misery? I have no idea. Maybe it is because because it would give me something to work towards, something that I felt I could control. But with that being said, the exams are very difficult and require a lot of studying.
So let’s recap. I graduated college, moved to a new city, started a new job and began working towards the CPA. My life during the week quickly turned into this: arrive to the gym at 7am, work from 8:30am-6:30pm, study from 7pm-10pm, go home to sleep and repeat. My weekends were filled with studying, an occasional brunch, a date every now and then (when n a Tinder match actually seemed interesting), oversleeping for church and meal prepping for the week. Trying to juggle a new (challenging) job, studying for these exams, living a healthy lifestyle, finding time for my friends and keeping my relationship with God in tact is the reason why Money Honey has been down. Adding something else to my plate would have literally been impossible, at that moment. 2% of the time I felt like Super Woman but 98% of the time I could barely breathe. But like all things that have a special place in your heart, you can never avoid it for too long.
Even with a million things going on, I never stopped thinking about Money Honey and it has finally gotten to the point where I can no longer run from it. So here we are, over a year later. I still have multiple things on my plate (unfortunately I am still studying for these exams), but what good is life if it’s not filled with the things that you actually love. I LOVE Money Honey and I have a true passion for everything that it stands for which is why MONEY HONEY IS BACK AND IS HERE TO STAY!
By Khadija Bingham
