Twelve Steps To Achieve Financial Freedom Without Living Frugally
/One of my biggest motivators for creating, maintaining and growing Money & Mimosas is the ability to design a life doing exactly what I love. When I was working as an accountant, I always felt as if something was missing. As soon as I became a freelancer, a whole new world of possibilities opened up for me.
Although my life was comfortable and enjoyable as an accountant, I knew that there was more for me to experience. Beyond experience, I also knew that following the traditional financial path would not afford me the opportunity to live the life that I wanted. Sure, I could probably retire comfortably- but the idea of retirement was not appealing to me. I did not want to have to wait several decades before I could enjoy the fruits of my labor. Also, I wanted to build a career that I would enjoy doing for a lifetime.
I chose to create this blog and build a career based around all of my passions. It has given me so many experiences that I could never have dreamed of and the ability to achieve financial freedom without living frugally.
Although I am still working towards my definition of financial freedom, I have achieved a number of milestones along the way. Here are the twelve steps you can take to achieve financial freedom without living frugally.
Twelve Steps To Financial Freedom
Define financial freedom for yourself. Everyone’s definition is different and it is important to discover yours before embarking on this journey. Otherwise, you’ll end up at a destination that isn’t suited for you. Also, keep in mind that there are a number of milestones along the way. For example, my definition of financial freedom is to generate enough cash flow from my passive income to cover my living and lifestyle expenses. For me, cash flow is more important than net-worth because some assets do not support the lifestyle I wish to lead. This is a rather lofty goal, so along the way, I’ve defined and reached milestones that have helped me stay on this path. Each milestone is a form of financial freedom, for me. I’ve detailed some of those milestones, below.
Shift your mindset from scarcity to abundance. In order to create financial freedom, you have to believe that it is possible. I come across so many jaded people who say they want financial freedom, but sabotage their own progress because they have such a negative outlook on life. Practice finding the possibilities in every situation and you will be on your way to designing life on your own terms.
Track your money. Awareness is key to building and maintaining wealth. I recommend a weekly money date to review your income, expenses and goals. I call this your Money & Mimosas date.
Invest in your skills and wellbeing. As Warren Buffett says, the best investment you can make is in yourself. I have invested in sales training programs, speaking classes, writing courses, marketing trainings - all out of pocket. The total investment has been $90,000 or more in my development. I’ve also invested in a ton of therapy, energy healing and classes for my physical health. And this doesn’t include all of the sweat equity related to the time I’ve spent reading free material such as blog posts like this one to help me better understand how to build the life I want to lead. You can also check out my Money Minute videos on YouTube. Everyday I release a new video with a financial term that we should all know!
Start a passion project and monetize it. Not everyone’s path to financial freedom will include this step which is why it is important to define financial freedom on your own terms. But, for those of us who identify as creators, artists, writers, or a violinist like Miracle- this is a key step. Whatever your passion is, identify it and monetize it!
Earn $1,000 from your passion project as a freelancer. Once you monetize your passion project, set your next goal to generate $1,000 in earnings from it.
Create a monthly recurring revenue of $1,000 from your passion project. The biggest lesson I’ve learned from working for myself is the importance of having consistent income. Once you earn your first $1,000, the next goal is to secure a client or project that will pay you a guaranteed minimum of $1,000 per month for six months or more.
Grow recurring revenue to cover living expenses. Now that you have some consistent income, the next step is to grow the earnings so that they can cover your living expenses. For some of you, this will be a huge milestone because you will transition into working on your passion project full-time.
Surround yourself with like-minded individuals. This has been one of the toughest steps for me. It is has been a challenge to find other women who have an abundant mindset, want to make money and look good while doing it, be an activist and watch Keeping Up with the Kardashians…wellllll, the last one isn’t a requirement but you get my point. That’s why I created The Socialites - to nurture a community of like-minded, ambitious women.
Identify your investing values. Do you care about the environment, alleviating poverty, parity for women? It’s important to get clear on your values and use them as a guideline when you start investing.
Build a cash cushion for one year of expenses. This cash cushion can be a combination of investment vehicles that are very liquid- including a high-yield savings account, mutual fund, and ETFs. For me, access to cash is very important. If it is less important to you, then having less than a year of expenses may be a better fit.
Build out your investment strategy. Once you have your cash cushion, expand your investing to include vehicles that can start generating passive income for you. Keep in mind that your passion project is now a business and should be treated as part of your overall investment strategy.
About Money & Mimosas: Money & Mimosas was started as a passion project by Danetha. A former NFL cheerleader turned entrepreneur, she started blogging as a way to combine all of her passions into a career. Now, Money & Mimosas is read by thousands of women in over forty countries with the same dream of living the rich & sexy lifestyle.
