Hi EnLifers! I’m sitting here dreading another Monday of going to a stressful job after I’ve had such an enjoyable three days off enlifing-enjoying the freedom and control over my time. So of course, it’s got me thinking 1) I have the power to choose to be present right now and continue enlifing while I can –that’s the mindfulness I’ve been working on to help manage stress (that in another future post) and 2) what would it take for me to quit my job? Number 2 is a really loaded question that fans out into many other questions-like what would I ultimately gain if I left my job?; how would I provide for myself and my family if I left?, what would my future look like without stable, full-time employment? Every time I’ve thought about leaving my job like when my kids were born, I’ve always thought it impossible without being able to replace my income somehow. Turns out, that’s not the only option. I’ve been seeing a lot of articles and listening to podcasts lately around this movement called “minimalism” or as some people call it “essentialism”. Some people are using it to get rid of stuff in their lives and live more free of consumerism. So that got me thinking another option would be to just choose to live off less! It could possibly help me gain the financial freedom to leave my current job and/or optimize my finances so that even if I don’t leave my current job anytime soon, my family and I will be in a more comfortable situation as we would already have adapted to “living minimally”. So what are my options? The following are five (5) things that I’ve come up as potential options. Some of these are BIG moves and changes and would definitely have to be discussed and considered in the context of where my family is now, but they are options nonetheless and maybe even ones that you may want to consider if you are thinking about how to reach financial independence and/or anything like getting out of debt, saving more, or investing more. So this is what I came up with:
1) Move into a cheaper home – We are fortunate in that when we sold our home, we profited from it and bought our current home with a small mortgage. However, we really profited enough that we probably could’ve found a home to buy mortgage free with some sacrifices. So realistically, that is still an option. We love the home we live in, but it has a ton of space that we honestly don’t use much such as 2 guest rooms, nice-sized formal dining room, and a full unfinished basement. So when thinking about it, we could sell this home, get the equity in it, and find a home that we could pay cash for and be mortgage free! Not to mention there would be less to clean which means more time for me and my family!
2) Pay off all debt – We’re working on this now, but we could work to accelerate it in various ways. At this point, we only have student loan and mortgage debt. One option I’m working on now is to see if my employer will pay the balance of my student loans (job is looking better already! J). If this pans out, I’ll definitely be at my job longer with a service agreement, but then we could put my student loan payments towards my husband’s student loans and accelerate paying his off in full. Once we had the student loans paid off, then we could either use the additional cash flow to pay off the mortgage and/or invest. Either way, it’d make me feel more comfortable leaving my job if we didn’t’ have debt.
3) Spend less – Now, I know this seems probably like a no brainer, but it is difficult to actually do at times. But it’s a good thing to do when possible. I’ll probably write a future post about the process I’m using now and how I’ve been able to save money in our monthly budget at times by simply not spending. It’s amazing what happens when you are not caught up in consumerism and actually stop and think – “is this something I really truly need to buy?”
4) Active Income – When I’ve thought about these last two options, they really fall under one category of developing additional income streams, but because I like 5 things, I’ll give them each their own number. Side-hustling, moon-lighting, whatever you want to call it, falls into the category of an active income stream in my opinion. It basically means I’ve got to actually do something in order to earn more money. I could take on a part time job, develop a product or service to sell, etc,. I’ve had a side hustle before along with said full-time job and it was a lot of hard work, but fulfilling. It’s actually what made me launch this blog. I owned a life and financial coaching service, but phased it out to raise kids and move to another state. I miss that work, but know I don’t have the physical time to devote to coaching one on one right now, but I still want to share the message through my own journey and hopefully help someone-hence the blog. My ultimate dream is to live on a beach and help people live their best lives through gained financial independence and literacy! I want to be able to do that full-time. So basically, a side hustle for me may be to develop some service, workshop, or product (e-book?) that helps people and provides value, while also providing income. Combined with living off less, this would give me the financial security I need to leave my job. I’m continuing to think about this one, so if you have any suggestions, please share!
5) Passive Income – So this is something that I never really gave much thought until recently. I’ve dabbled in it before kind of not realizing what I was really doing when I took the proceeds from selling my first home and opened a CD that earned 5% and just kept reinvesting the interest earned. That’s the first time I earned money by really doing nothing (i.e. passive income) other than letting someone else borrow my money and pay interest. It really is the old adage of let my money make money for me! It has become painfully clear that I’ve missed that boat for the past three years as we have money (mostly emergency savings to last us 10-12 months should I lose my job) sitting in the bank in a money market savings account earning 0.04%. So one of my ideas is to, at the very least, put most of that money in a Certificate of Deposit that at least earns us 1-2%. However, I’ve also been thinking about investing in something that produces a larger yield than 1-2% annually like rental real estate (which I think is actually a mix between active and passive income), the stock market, or investing in start-ups.
So now, I’m excited because for the first time, I can see options for how to become financially independent before I’m 65! I’m personally not trying to wait that long to do what I really want to be doing. I believe with some intention and careful strategic planning, I can do some and/or all of these things to help prepare for and achieve financial independence. I ultimately believe starting with the first few ideas which are rooted in minimalism will actually help me optimize my active and passive income streams. Are you trying and/or have you tried any of the ideas/options listed? If so, how did they work for you? Please share your ideas and questions in the comment section below!
Until next time,
MK
Like this:
Like Loading...
