This is a guest post by Liz Michelle from Teachingbrave.com. Liz is a single mum, early childhood teacher and was a child care director for 15 years. She has a blog (teachingbrave.com) with early childhood related content, her money journey from broke single mum to now thriving financially, and parenting tips.
Financial freedom will look different for everyone. It depends on your personal goals, your current financial situation, what you truly value, and how you want to live your life!
For me personally, I was a broke single mum when my son’s father left us, and I knew from that moment I didn’t want to be the stereotypical broke single mum. I was determined not to struggle, and I never wanted money to be a point of constant stress in my life. So I made some drastic changes and put some goals in place. Here’s what I did and how:
Goals
Have a serious look at your current situation and then decide what it is you truly want. Put some concrete goals into place and here’s the most important bit; decide on some strategies as to how you will achieve them!
For me, I wanted to save money. When my ex partner left us, he took all of our savings and I was left with nothing. My BIG goal was to eventually buy my own home. For the short term, my goal was to save $1000. So I first managed to save $100, then $500, then I made it to $1000, and eventually, a few years later, I built my savings to $100k!
~Novel Serialisation: Heavens Fire~
I achieved my goal of buying my own home, and money was again, tight! So I put further goals into place and set about to achieve them!
Sacrifices
You can’t have your cake and eat it too. If you want to be financially free, whatever that actually means to you, you might have to make some sacrifices along the way.
Personally, with the salary I was earning as a Child care director, I was in a position to rent closer to the beach, closer to the city, closer to my friends. But I knew if I did, I would be living pay check to pay check, and I wouldn’t have any surplus to be able to save. So, I made the decision to live further away, in Sydney’s north west, in a cottage on my friend’s parents property, paying very low rent. This of course came with sacrifices. The cottage often flooded, I was on tank water which wasn’t safe to drink, and there were constant pest issues. I did my best to keep it clean, to keep my son and I safe and life was a little more difficult, but, I was able to save money.
Personal education
If you want financial freedom, you need to be fully aware of your own personal finance situation. Do you know exactly how much money you have coming in, and going out? Are you aware of how much Super you are getting paid and what your balance is? Do you know your net worth and if you’re saving, your savings rate? Do you understand your household bills and are you getting the best deals? I think there are many people in relationships where one person just ‘takes care of the money’, leaving some individuals clueless as to their own personal financial situation. This can be detrimental, especially if there is a relationship breakdown or if the person ‘taking care of the money’ somehow gets sick or injured, or unable to continue taking care of financial matters.
Personally I think it’s vital for everyone to be fully aware of their financial situation, as described above. If there are things you don’t understand, start researching and educate yourself. I started listening to personal finance podcasts, reading blogs and books, and educated myself on money and managing money, so I felt more confident with managing my own finances. I even started investing in shares and was hooked when I received my first dividend! You can always seek help from a financial advisor if you feel it’s necessary, but be aware that there is a lot of free information available these days if you know where to look!
Living frugally
Living frugally is about being aware of how much money you have for spending, and sticking to a budget, as well as being financially aware. Here is a quick list of frugal tips, all of which I have done myself, and may help others to think about how to live a more frugal lifestyle, allowing them to save more money:
- Shop clearance products and buy groceries on special (you can also check out my article on “12 ways to get free food or free groceries” HERE.)
- Cook at home, explore new recipes, buying less takeaway food
- Audit your household bills, shop for better deals, compare providers, ASK for better prices!
- Change the way you exercise – cancel gym memberships, exercise for free or cheaply (bushwalking, bike riding, aerobics at home, kick a ball at the park)
- Use Op shops! If you don’t look, you don’t know how much can be saved, and what you can score for next to nothing (even brand new clothes)
- The kids don’t need ALL the extra curricular activities – pick one or two
- Sell excess household clutter – make cash and declutter all at once
- Start growing your own food at home – I grow fruits, veggies and herbs on my small balcony garden – saves me HEAPS.
Spend money! (according to YOUR VALUES!)
Financial freedom is not about cutting all spending, we all have to spend money, but ask yourself, What do I truly value?
For some people, they value their household decor, or their branded clothing, or the expensive dance lessons for the kids, or the regular manicures. For me, I don’t care if my cups and plates don’t match, I do my own nails at home, my son plays soccer and does karate, and I don’t care about wearing second hand clothes for myself and my son, but I did spend money on a new puppy because they bring so much joy! I also treat myself to a facial here and there because it relaxes me and I have problem skin. I also love to have a nice dinner out about once a month, but enjoy shopping frugally and cooking from home most of the time.
Your values are YOUR VALUES! Don’t feel guilty about spending money on something if you know you’ve saved money on something else and feel good about it.
The bottom line
The bottom line here is, to reach financial freedom, work out what that means to YOU!
It helps if you:
- Live below your means (work out how much money is coming in, and make sure you are able to save some for building wealth)
- Pay off all consumer debt (credit cards, personal loans, car loans) to avoid high interest payments)
- Put some goals into place, decide on some strategies for achieving them and make a start!
I hope my tips have helped. I just wanted to share a bit about my journey to help others to realise it is possible to pull yourself out of a difficult financial situation and start to build wealth.
Liz Michelle
About the author
My name is Liz Michelle and I’m a single mum, early childhood teacher and was a child care director for 15 years. I also have a blog (teachingbrave.com) where I have early childhood related content, my money journey from broke single mum to now thriving financially, and parenting tips.
