For those of you uneducated in the world of slang terminology, BAMF is short for Bad Ass Mofo. Upon closer inspection I realized that BAMF could also be short for Broke Ass Mofo, but why can’t we be both?

I want to tackle the seemingly enormous task of breaking down personal finance for the young, fun BAMF.  I am by no means an accountant.  Hell, I’m actually really bad at saving money in general, but I’d like to try to do better.  And as I go, I will introduce my methods here, filed under the BAMFonomics category.

What qualifies you as a BAMF?  Easy answer…I HAVE NO IDEA!

I don’t know really know who my “target” here is, all I know is why I wanted to see this done.  I wanted to do this because I loathe most of the money-saving type blogs I’ve seen.  They’re all either full of housewifey advice, or are straight-up affiliate scam sites (GET YOUR FREE CREDIT SCORE!!!!!).  Don’t get it twisted.  I’m broke, so I am going to try and pinch every dime out of this thing, but I’ll never post an ad for something I don’t believe in and haven’t used at some point.

But most of all, I’m a comedian, so hopefully it will be entertaining.  I hope you gathered at least that from the LOL I conveniently placed in my title.

I don’t have a big evil plan for this site.  I just know that I haven’t seen a money-saving blog that I like to read, so I figured I would make it.  Please tell me if you like it too.

Image from Flickr, by D Sharon Pruitt

I was blessed with several gifts in this world.  First, I’m an optimist.  I can find the good in a lot of pretty crappy situations and people.  Second, I’m pretty good at using my life experiences to help other people.  And third, I’m like really good at being broke.

Now you may say that being broke isn’t necessarily a skill, but I would tend to disagree.  Some of you naysayers out there would say that I’m probably just really bad at making money.  That isn’t entirely untrue, but like I said, I’m an optimist.  The glass is always half full around here.

So, I’m 24 and I am a student, stand-up comic, writer, entrepreneur, and blogger.  See?  It’s like someone was like, “Hey Calley, what are the five things you can do to ensure that you will still be living at your parents’ house in three years?”  I’ve turned having no money into an art form.

It’s important to me to use the word broke.  That word is okay.  Penniless?  Too literal; I have a lot of pennies.  Bankrupt?  Too illegal.  Destitute?  Sounds like prostitute.  Poor?  Ugh, I hate that word.  When I hear that word, in my head I hear “meager, deficient, needy, inferior, inadequate, unfortunate, hapless.”  With words like that floating around in your head, how are you ever supposed to change your circumstances?  Mike Todd said it best when he said, “being poor is a frame of mind. Being broke is a temporary situation.”

I’m broke but I’m not broken.  This isn’t a permanent state.  I won’t be broke forever, but I will have grown a lot because of it.

That’s where I’m at now.  So, I wanted a place where we could openly discuss our brokeness without shame, and where we could maybe learn how to not be broke anymore.  I’ve never really found a blog for people with my degree of pennilessness (that was kinda fun to say), so I had to make my own.  I don’t want to know how to save $20 on paper towels over the span of a year; I want to know how I can get the most of the only $20 I have right now. I don’t want to hear about how to budget for a family, I want to hear about how to budget for a Saturday night out with my friends.  I basically want to figure out how to make the best out of this seemingly shitty situation.  Responsibilities be damned!

I’m kidding…kind of.  I just want to find the balance.  I learned the hard way that punishing yourself for your bad decisions or mistakes does absolutely nothing to fix them.  It doesn’t matter what got me to this point, this is where I am and I’m going to make the best of it.

I hope you’ll join me.