Whether you’re the family’s breadwinner or a single parent, you may have experienced the anxiety of having to find ways to support your dependent’s needs. During the recession and economic downturn, you may panicabout where the next meal is going to come from,face the burden of having to pay debts, and having no financial safety net.
What Is Financial Freedom?
Depending on their situation, financial freedom may mean different for a lot of people. However, it generally implies being able to gain relief, security, and peace of mind when contingencies strike. It’s the freedom of allowing yourself to pursue that low-paying yet rewarding career, retire early, and travel to any destination.
Moreover, financial freedom is having the monetary stability to make life decisions because you’re prepared and have everything under control. With your hard work, consistency, and efforts, you’ll soon be able to live and afford the lifestyle that you want while having protection from any contingency.
Start Your Financial Journey Today
Considering all these, many want to achieve financial freedom. However, the road towards it isn’t going to be linear. Instead, it’s going to be a personal journey of having to figure out how to gain complete control over your finances, outline strategies, and be responsible for the money that you have.
Despite this, there are ways to make the journey bearable. To guide you, below are ways to start your journey:
- Do Your Research
When it comes to handling your finances, knowledge is power. Gladly, no matter what your current financial struggles are, there are resources that can help you expand your knowledge about dealing with finances.
For instance, you can look into a blog about financial freedom and run through money mistakes, financial management tips, and more.There are also budgeting apps and other similar software that you can explore and see how it meets your needs.
Moreover, there are now more digital influencers who upload visual content that revolves around finances, side hustles, building a credit score, and more. However, be wary of their advice and take only what you think is practical to your situation.
To help you get started on taking a hold of your finances, tap into the available resources around you and leverage these free opportunities.
2. Halt Your Credit Card Spending
Take note that it takes a long time to rebuild credit. While you may think earning rewards, discounts, cash backs, and more are going to be worth it, this won’t help you gain financial control. This will only reinforce the habit of spending and accumulating debt.
While you’re still paying your debts, stop making purchases using your credit card. Instead, use cash when you’re buying essentials as this helps you to actually see how much money you’re spending.
Only use your credit card once you’ve paid off debts and have an actual plan to boost your credit score.
3. Identify Where Your Cash Flows
Achieving financial stability starts when you make the decision to be proactive and see where your cash flows. Keep your receipts, bills, and other documents, and record these into your journal or spreadsheet.
While this may seem quite stressful, this technique will help you see how your income is dispensed to different categories, areas where you’re spending too much than necessary, things that you can cut down, and more. Hence, this will help you allocate your funds, determine your priorities, and manage your finances.
Moreover, by having an idea about these matters, you can make a realistic budget so your household bills, insurance, rentals, and the like are fully funded. At the same time, this monthly budget should include how much you can save in a month without sacrificing your daily needs.
Likewise, if it seems your monthly budget isn’t able to sustain you and your dependent’s needs, you can consider doing part-time jobs as your side hustle. Look into freelancing gigs that you can do during the weekends.
All of these will help you build the habit of tracking expenses and budgetingso you can move closer to your financial goals and resist the urge to splurge on the unnecessary.
4. Strategize How To Pay Off Debts
Your debts are almost always going to haunt you despite trying not to think about them. Hence, instead of running away from your debts, strategize how you can gradually pay them before they mount up and become too overwhelming.
For instance, you can begin paying off debts with the highest interest rates to help you save chunks of money. After you’ve successfully completed it, tackle the next highest rate. Alternatively, you can begin paying off loans with low-interest rates.
By having a strategy, you’ll be able to set mini-goals and intentions to take on, allowing you to pay off all these debts in a course of time. you’ll be able to set mini goals and intentions to take on and payoff all these debts in a course of time.
Final Thoughts
The road to financial freedom is going to be a long and demanding one. However, know that nothing compares to gaining that sense of peace and security. Consider the above ways and make the decision to start your journey today.
