How To Save Money, My Journey To Financial Freedom: I saved $50,000+ in a Little Over 1 Year!
Nov 23, 2022
Hi I'm Denise.
Did you know I started my career out of college as a financial analyst for a top pharmaceutical company? I joined a prestigious finance & accounting rotational development program where I was able to travel and live in several places around the world for 2 years. At 21 years of age, I packed up my belongings and moved every six months to different places and it was the best experience ever. I got a passport to travel and live abroad. The company I worked for at the time paid for everything and I made sure I maximized the opportunity to learn and create a new perspective on life. This afforded me the opportunity to use my paycheck to invest into the stock market.
Investing and trading stock changed my life.
Initially, my sole purpose of going to college was so I can learn about money and how to manage it well. I wanted to become an investment banker and rise in Corporate America to become one of the first diverse women on wall street. This was my dream as a freshman in college. I grew up in a home where I saw my parents struggle financially. As the oldest child I wanted to learn everything I could about money and how to help my family. My goal was to someday give my own family that I create the opportunity to achieve financial freedom.
During college I learned everything I could about finance and accounting. I love to read books, therefore I self-taught myself things outside of the traditional classroom. I would always advise my friends and family members about finance, accounting, and taxation while in college. I always knew I wanted to help people. I wanted to make a difference in the world and teach others how to live a life anywhere in the world and achieve financial freedom.
While I loved the work I was doing in corporate finance & accounting, I worked long hours each month in finance & accounting closing the books for a company and felt like I had more to offer in the world. I decided to go back to graduate school full time and get my MBA in marketing & finance. In addition, I received my Master of Science in Finance. So yes, I loved learning and school, so I got 3 master’s degrees within two years. While in graduate school full time, I had time to reflect and think about how I will help others, specifically women achieve financial freedom. During my time in the full time MBA & MSF program I had a turning point in my life, I was the only African American woman in my entire full time MBA & MSF program. I was confident in who I was but experiencing graduate school as the “only one” was very uncomfortable for me. My self-esteem was challenged, and I felt like I wasn’t good enough even though I earned every right to be there. I thought about my Corporate America experience of always being the “only one” in the room and told myself I must change the narrative.
During my second year in grad school, my Caucasian male finance professor asked to meet with me. I agreed and we met for lunch. He asked me, “How did you do it?” I replied, “How did I do what?” He said, “You know make it out?” I said, “Oh make it out of poverty?” At that moment, I realized that the view society paint of you as a minority or a woman is most times what one hears or sees in the media. It’s not always true. So over lunch I shared my story with him and my upbringing. He later asked, “How did you become so good at finance?” I told him how I always was good at math. He told me that the department of the graduate finance program, nominated me as the “Outstanding Student in Finance: Financial Management & Markets Concentration”, which only 1 student in the entire MBA program get selected for each graduating class year. I was shocked and excited. Of course, this boosted my confidence that I was being nominated by all my finance professors due to my hard work and finance skillset.
I grew up in a family where I saw my parents struggle financially. I made up in my mind that I would be the one to break generational financial curses that run in my family. I learned everything I could about finance and accounting to make sure I am the top student in the class. I spent countless hours teaching myself investing and trading.
I realized that I was working hard in school and corporate America making everyone else’s dreams come true and not my own. Therefore, I said when I finish graduate school, I will launch my own business to help women who are career women or mompreneurs learn how to live anywhere in the world and achieve financial freedom.
I was always interested in personal financial planning. I achieved a perfect credit score while in undergraduate school of 850+. This was unheard of for most college students. I applied what I learned in finance and investing to my own life in graduate school and walked out of full-time graduate school with over $50,000+ saved to pay for a wedding and build a new construction home in cash. YES, that’s right in cash!!
Graduate school afforded me the opportunity to learn how to make money work for me. I learned how to develop my own investing strategy and trade.
It took some time, but my dream has come true, and I launched The Career Mompreneur. I want to help people, which is why I want to teach you how to balance it all, a career, motherhood (if applicable), entrepreneurship while living anywhere in the world and achieving financial freedom and change your life!
In my upcoming financial coaching courses, you’ll learn more about the steps I took to get to where I am today, and you will learn tips and tricks that help me remain successful and live the life I desire. I am thrilled to connect with you.
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Denise Ochigbo
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