Financial Freedom

 Divas with a Purpose, Guest Blogger

Please welcome Michelle Garrett as our guest blogger today!  I have been following her blog, Divas with a Purpose, for the last few weeks and have gotten lots of encouragement and info about striving to have Financial Freedom.  Michelle will discuss this in further detail below:

 Wife, mommy, sister, friend, diva – all these words and more describe the person Michelle Garrett is and is constantly striving to be. My blog, Divas with a Purpose, began as an outlet and has grown to become so much more over the years. It’s become a place to network and connect with other women as we go through this journey of life. As women, mothers, sisters, friends, divas embracing our similarities and differences – we all should be…Driven, Inspiring, Victorious and called to Action in our families and communities. Throughout the month of April, Divas With A Purpose is focusing on issues that relate to personal finances and our families in honor of National Financial Literacy Month.

So exactly what is Financial Freedom and why do I want it?

This question came to me quite suddenly one day.
Do I really understand what financial freedom is? Why is it something that I’m so focused on?

I once had a conversation with a friend where she explained why she wasn’t concerned about paying down/off her debt. “For what? I’m always going to be broke” she stated. Her rationale was that she’d just accumulate more debt because what’s the purpose of being debt-free if you couldn’t have or do what you wanted in order to get there. She was content with being in debt past her ears if it meant she could enjoy life as it was.

That stung and I couldn’t fully grasp that way of thinking and accepting it as my personal reality. I know so many people who feel the same way and exist paycheck to paycheck, loan to loan, credit card transfer to credit card transfer, and pay day loan to pay day loan.

What Does Financial Freedom mean to me?

In my opinion, financial freedom means not being burdened down with the stresses of money – owing someone, late bills, disconnect notices, and having to go without.

Financial freedom means being able to control my finances and not having my (lack-of) finances control me.

By eliminating my debt, I free up MY money – the money I work hard for throughout the week – to do things that I truly enjoy.

My Steps to Financial Freedom

To attain my personal financial freedom, I sat down and came up with the following steps and goals to keep me focused on accountable. I encourage those I speak with on a regular basis to do the same for themselves. It truly does make a difference!

·         Reality Check – looking at what I have, what I owe and what I need

·         Budgeting – creating a family budget that my husband and I can agree on

·         Savings – having an emergency fund and creating short and long-term savings goals

·         Debt Management – Pay off  20% of my total current total debt annually to reach my goal of being debt-free within the next 5 years and not accumulate any additional debt

·         Connecting with other like-minded savvy savers to learn from and with one another

·         Educating myself by reading and following those that have accomplished the goals I want to reach

·         Teaching my children the importance being financially educated and set them on the path to being financially free at an early age

What do you take out of this post?  

How can you strive to have Financial Freedom? Share your comments below.