There are two words that describe why I do what I do: financial freedom. This is behind my driving desires to build my investment property portfolio and also Property Bloom, my property development project management business. Not just for myself, but for my family.
This drive has come from watching my parents in their retirement. While they are living in a beautiful part of NSW and own their own home, they are on the old-age pension and really struggling to pay bills. There is no spare cash for a holiday or to reward themselves for working so hard all their lives, but they are still happy.
I want something different for my retirement, and I worked out 10 years ago after picking up the book Rich Dad, Poor Dad that unless I take full responsibility for my future and management of my own investments then I’d be in the same boat.
I also wanted to her other inspiring stories so I asked my female staff and clients what it meant to be financially independent.
Here’s Kylie’s story…
I remember sitting down with my Nan many years ago and she was telling me how she had always had what she referred to as a “cunning kick”. Her cunning kick consisted of a couple of hundred dollars, which back then was a lot of money. She had it hidden in an envelope stashed at the back of the hall closet so no one, not even my Pop, could find it.
Later on in years, this amount grew to $1,000, then $2,000. She felt so confident that she had this safety net for her “just in case”. When we would visit, she would go to the envelope and give my sister and me $20, sometimes $50. It was obvious to us it made her feel good that she could do this for us.
Later on in life when they were on the pension, my Nan would go shopping and buy nice things for herself. She would come home and secretly change the price tags on clothes, jewellery or anything she had bought for herself, telling Pop she paid less than half the price she actually did pay for it. My Pop never found out. Seeing my Nan in this situation, I soon realised I wanted something different.
Here’s Joanne’s story….
Financial freedom means I have the choice to live where I want, somewhere that brings peace and joy to me just by waking up being surrounded in beauty.
I want to grow organic foods on my land to keep me healthy into old age. I want to have time to exercise and stretch.
I want to be able to travel if I want to both overseas and closer to home to experience more of the world and the people in it.
To really enjoy the beauty of nature by spending more time in it not rushing by it.
To have time to spend with family and friends, taking my niece and nephew on adventures.
Financial freedom is knowing that I can choose to work whenever I want to keep me stimulated and challenged and choose to not work when it is time to rest, meditate or play in the garden.
It is having the ability to say yes more often: “Yes I would love to go hang gliding!”
Financial freedom is being self-reliant empowered, in control of my own life and destiny.
Here’s Sandi’s story…
Financial freedom to me means a few things. Firstly it means that if anything ever happened to me or I ended up on my own, my family would be OK without me financially or I would be OK financially if on my own. That gives me piece of mind.
Then I suppose from a more selfish point of view, financial freedom would be to have our investments working for us: not us working for them. That’s the ideal position I’d like to get into. To have more time for the family and also importantly, for myself (I’ve learnt that this week from ending up with pneumonia from over-doing it!).
What does financial freedom mean to you? Tell us below.