I’m Jackie Beck, and I post 5 days a week over at MoneyCrush, which focuses on the emotional aspects of money and on learning to love your financial life in the process.

I’m in my early 40s, married to a very patient and encouraging man, and have a son who’ll be graduating from high school this spring.

Yay for Yakezie!

It’s been great to be a part of the Yakezie group — which I first heard about thanks to one of Sam’s many provocative posts that may or may not have made me sputter. I love the idea of promoting others (especially on twitter), and enjoy seeing so many different perspectives, trading comments, and learning from one another.

A Little Background
I’ve been three things for close to as long as I can remember: a writer, an artist, and an entrepreneur.

I can remember being a little kid at my grandma’s house, using up all her notebooks and scratch paper as I scribbled “words” on them and drew accompanying pictures. I know I had some idea of what they were supposed to mean, but no one else did. Luckily, I have a very encouraging grandma, because not only did she not get upset, she let me tape up everything I’d made all over her kitchen.

I also started my first “business” in the 2nd grade — and moved on to many that were actually profitable from there. Of course, there were several that weren’t profitable as well — and I’m sure there’ll be more of both kinds to come. That’s just a part of being a doer-of-miscellaneous things (aka an entrepreneur.)

Joining the Personal Finance Blogging World
My husband and I were both married previously, and were both pretty much on the same track financially when we got together — we were getting out of debt, and ready to get our lives back in order and on a positive path. So naturally I took a personal finance book (Your Money or Your Life) with me when we went on vacation.

That book completely inspired me; so much so that I immediately began tracking my spending while on the vacation. When we got back, I began poking around on the internet to see if there were any forums on the subject. I found the (then-small) personal finance blogging world instead. Since I’d been wanting to make it a practice to write daily, I decided a PF blog was the way to go because it would kill two birds with one stone — keeping me focused on improving my finances while meeting my writing goal. This was back in 2006.

My first (anonymously-written) blog stayed small, for years, but I kept writing anyway. Finally I decided to start over with a fresh new blog and my real name. MoneyCrush was born in October of 2009.

Financial Goals
I’m very big on goals of all types — and on persisting in doing what it takes to meet those goals. So naturally I have a few financial goals. First, of course, my husband and I are working to get our house paid off by the end of 2011. That’s a very big goal for us. I’m not quite sure exactly how we will accomplish it yet, but I believe that we will. Hopefully my second big goal will help with that: greatly increasing my income. As part of that strategy (and because we’re just so darn happy to be debt-free-but-the-house) I created a debt snowball app for the iPhone and Android phones called Pay Off Debt.

The Future
I hope folks who read my blog come away feeling empowered and inspired — and that they take action on something that’s important in their lives. I hope to continue building relationships and getting to know new folks in the process. And of course, to reach my goals and help others do the same.

Join us for further discussion in the Yakezie Forums.