Last Updated on August 12, 2020 by Early retired mom
Hi,
10 years ago, I took my first steps to becoming financially free and having control of my destiny. I wanted to quit my 9-5 job and have time freedom to focus on what’s important to me.
It all started really well and my mind was focused on creating a consulting business for online product launches.
I even got my first 4 customers.
However, life happened in between and surprise us.
Like they always do, right?
And I got an offer for a work from home job that allowed me to travel the world extensively for a very good salary.
I need to choose between almost no income to becoming financially stable and more than that.
So, I chose.
Now I can say that I chose wrong.
A Millionaire Mindset, Can It Be?
For the past 10 years, I focused, unintentionally, on creating a career. I had many reasons for side tracking, some are good and some much less.
However, the important part is this – the financial education concepts I learned 10 years ago, and more specifically, the millionaire mindset I adopted has not changed a bit.
This mindset help me today to realize, that I want to quit the 9-5 job again.
I want to be financially independent and to actually retire much earlier than planned.
A millionaire mindset means knowing that I have the possibility to create my own financial freedom and retire early.
It means believing I can escape the rate race and quit my 9-5 job for good. Financial education is a big part of this mindset shift.
Anyway, this is what gets me to today.
Making Someone Else’s Rich
Today, I am, or used to be as of a few days ago, the VP of a global software provider and part of the company’s management team.
But I had enough. Really!
I am tired of living in the rat race.
I feel like I am working and working trying to be at my best, trying to influence, produce more revenue to the company but at the end of the day, all I have is a paycheck.
While it may be a nice one, it is still A paycheck.
My 9-5 jos is occupying most of my time. I work so hard to make someone else rich.
On the other end, I am a mother of 3 small toddlers.
A 3 years old daughter and twins (boy and girl) who are 1.4 months old. So, my life is very busy, intense and pretty hectic.
So, when I add those 2 factors (work and family) together and the stress that comes along with trying to keep it all together, it got me to the point where I simply do not enjoy.
In other words, I do not eat well, workout, go out with my husband and literally not living.
I need to stop and learn how to escape the rat race.
Let’s become an early retired mom.
This is sooo exciting. This is the actual first step of the journey!
What’s My Plat to Quit My 9-5 Job?
At this point, you may wonder how I plan to get started and start the journey to ditch my 9-5. I think planning for early retirement and knowing what it actually means to me will be a critical factor in my success.
Step #1: Figure our why I want to do it
This should be an easy part. Why I am willing to put all that effort to retire early? What comes out of this for my family and I? Here are my top 8 reasons to become a mom on fire:
- Have the freedom to decide when to work and when to do something else.
- Spend time with my kids when I want
- Build my family and life or financial freedom to be able to provide them with the possibilities the world has to offer
- Have the possibility to live somewhere else in the world without having to find work
- Travel around the world together with my family and expose my kids to different cultures
- Empower people around the world to create their own path to early retirement and financial independence
- I want a simple stress free life
- I am able to do that and succeed – this is a good enough reason already
For some reason, I feel this list will get amended as I start going.
Step #2: What is my current financial status?
For that to be calculated, I need to understand where I am today, or where we are as a family. More specifically, what current financial status is. I plan to start with this list:
- How much money do we have invested in different financial tools?
- How much money do we own? Broken down by items
- How much cash do we have available?
- What is our current monthly spending? I think I can calculate 12 months back, and I am using this really nice app to track all my expenses for a few years now
Step #3: What are my financial goals?
I have a few financial goals. Each one of them should be listed separately and planned accordingly.
- Create an emergency fund that will allow us to be unemployed for 6 months
- Create a second source of income though this new blogging business
- Clear all debt. That’s including: Mortgage, Car and Home renovation
- Invest everything else.
However, this is not it. It is currently just a list. But to do proper financial planning, this all needs to go into a fancy Excel file which I am happy to share with you.
Before I close this post, I want to share with you a funny article by Forbes that talks about the different levels of financial freedom. I am aiming for level 3 as a first stage. What’s your level?
In the next post, I would like to provide you with a step-by-step guide for understanding your current financial situation and building a budget.
Bye for now,
Early retired mom