Road to Financial Freedom

 “Spendthrift” is my mom’s mantra for how she handles money. As soon as she started giving me monetary money when I was in 6th grade, she would tell me not to spend everything, especially on the things that I do not need. Thanks to my mom, I learned how to save in a piggy bank early on.

But as I grow up, things change. I learned that to live a decent life, we need to work hard for the life that we want. But being a nurse in my country, the salary is not enough to feed our family let alone live a comfortable life. I have three children and pets at home. To sustain all our needs, I need to find ways how to earn in addition to what my husband is earning. I started to find ways how to earn passive income and a steady stream of income. Growing up, I know that once you graduate from college and earn a degree, you can
earn a living. But there was a shift of mindset when I was exposed to the power of social media. Admittedly, it helped me open doors to many opportunities including learning different skills that I can use in my everyday work. I learned how to be productive and at the same time earn money in the comforts of my home.

Earning money online through social media is quite challenging because our income is not fixed and pay takes time. But it did not stop me from learning how to budget our finances. What I learned from budgeting our income for us fixed earners are the following:

1. List down monthly bills, expenses, and incidentals. This way you can foresee where the bulk of our income goes. List down the average income received monthly or quarterly.
2. Save for your emergency fund. Calculate the projected expense for three to six months and that should be the amount of money you need in your bank account. This is the fund you will use should there be a financial problem in the family. 
3. List your financial goals. This list will help us identify which one you need to prioritize and focus on. In my case, I need to save up for my children’s college fund. That is why I need to discipline myself in spending our income.
4. Invest in yourself. Study new skills that you can use to improve yourself. This way, you may have a lot of opportunities to earn.
5. Work smart. For us to achieve our financial goals in life, we need to identify ways how we can work smart.
6. Build your savings plan. We have different cash flows and it is important that you research how you will be able to save.

Now that almost everyone is affected by global inflation, all the more that there is a need to work to focus on our financial goals. It is not an easy road to financial freedom but it can be done. 

What about you? What are your financial goals?