If you've been looking to make positive changes in your life or just looking for a fresh start, there's no better time than the beginning of a new year. Starting now, you have 365 days to make changes in your life and work towards new goals. I encourage you to reflect this week about areas of your life that you want to improve and set attainable goals to make positive changes.

If you're looking to improve your physical or financial health in 2023, check out the Financial Friday Community Panel segment below, where I was joined by special guests Dr. Kevin M. Satelle MD, Physician at Rapid Weight Loss and Esthetics Center and Christina Naylor, Chief Operation Officer at Carolina Trust Federal Credit Union to talk about creating healthy lifestyle habits for the upcoming year.

Can you believe it's almost Christmas? I feel like there are still so many things left to do. Luckily, I was able to cross baking cookies for Santa off of my to-do list last night. Growing up, we'd make a big batch of Christmas cookies a day or two before Christmas to take to different Christmas gatherings, and we would always save a few to set out for Santa. Santa wasn't the only one who got a treat; we always made sure to leave carrots for the reindeer too! We may have even left carrots for Santa instead of cookies a few years because my mom insisted that Santa was dieting.

This year, I took home a few recipes from the Carolina Trust Employee Cookie Exchange, so that Santa could have a new variety. I'm not going to lie this close to Christmas, I may have snuck a few cookies, but they were specifically for taste testing purposing. I wouldn't want to give Santa a nasty cookie. He would put me on the naughty list for sure!

As we kick off the month of December, the feeling of Christmas is starting to SHINE all around us. Everyone seems to have an extra GLOW about them; they're practically BEAMING. The excitement from the holiday season always gets to me each year; it's like I hardly know how to CONDUCT myself. There's just so much to do and see, and the idea of missing a single opportunity to celebrate HERTZ my heart.

You may have caught on to all my light puns by this point. With so many fantastic holiday light shows in our area, I figured a round-up blog post would be a BRIGHT idea.

With the holidays right around the corner, you may do more shopping than usual. In the blog post below, you'll learn some of the most costly mistakes shoppers make and how to avoid them so that you don't fall into a trap while doing your holiday shopping.

Holiday décor and music are filling department stores, Starbucks and Dunkin have released their holiday drink menus, and some people have already started putting up their trees. Although I'm not quite in the holly jolly spirit yet, I have begun financially planning for the holidays so that my debt doesn't outweigh my cheer. Below are the tips I'm using to keep myself in check as I kick-start my holiday spending.

When it comes to Halloween, are you a fan of being scared? It may be the optimist in me, but I hate being scared. I'm much more of a Casper the Friendly Ghost or Charlie Brown and The Great Pumpkin kind of girl. However, many people love Halloween's spooky décor, haunted houses, and scary movies. If you're a lover of all things scary, watch your back for the most frightening thing of all this Halloween season, High-Cost Lending.

With Halloween a little over a week away, we're running out of time to do all the fun Halloween activities. Luckily, the City of Conway, or should I say Halloween, has a little bit of everything for folks to enjoy. 

If you follow me on my brand ambassador Instagram account, successinthebag, you may know that I've recently been having car troubles. Pulling money out of my emergency savings account for recent repairs has made me think about trading in my vehicle for something new. Because I've already had to spend quite a bit of money repairing my current car, a big down payment on something new isn't ideal, making me consider the possibility of leasing.

Since I've never leased any of my previous vehicles, I didn't have much prior knowledge of the ends and outs of a car lease. I've been doing a lot of research recently about typical leasing agreements and options for when your lease is over. During my research, I found the BALANCE article below, which gave me all the information I needed about potentially buying a car you're leasing once the lease is over.

One of the most complex parts of sticking to a budget is breaking unhealthy spending habits and creating new healthy ones. Evaluating your spending and determining which aspects prevent you from sticking to your budget is an excellent place to start.

Check out the BALANCE blog post below for 5 Habits Every Budgeter Should Develop:

Fall is officially here, although it may not seem like it with 80-degree weather and palm trees instead of falling leaves.

Growing up in the mountains of Virginia, the arrival of fall was always seen and felt. It didn't take much to really get into the fall spirit. However, when I moved to the beach, I found that embracing the fall season required more effort on my end.

Since there isn't a major transition in the environment around me to help get me excited about fall, I've relied on the following things to get me in the spirit.