Friday, July 20, 2012

I Wanna Be Free!




Just found out recently the secrets for financial freedom:
  1. Live Below Your Means and Invest your Savings.
  2. Income – Savings = Expenses
I’m sure almost everyone of us have heard and/or read about this cliché. But why is it so hard to do??? I don’t aim to be a millionaire (hmmm...well actually I do!!!) but more importantly I want to experience financial freedom. A good friend once told me that one indication of a financial freedom is when you’re in a posh restaurant and you order without even checking out the price. You order what you want to eat BECAUSE you know you can afford it. Well..what he actually meant was...to be financially free is to be able to live life without any worries (financially, that is) because you have enough – more than enough actually. But when is enough, enough? Do we need to have extra jobs just to suffice our needs? Do we need to give up some needs and wants? Do we need to be frugal? Just what it is that we need to be to be like Henry Sy, Lucio Tan, or Bill Gates??? Do we need to join PBB? Haha!!!

Hey, everyone is “curious” on how it feels like to be a millionaire (or billionaire for some) because we want to experience the “good life.”  Good life as in a beautiful house, luxurious cars, branded clothes, and lavish travels. Gosh, I sound so materialistic here! Erase, erase... good life as in comfortable life wherein we can eat more than three times a day, go to a good school, have a ride, travel yearly, get a gadget...you know...basic needs plus some wants.

At 25, I begin to wonder on what I have been doing financially for the past five years of being employed in a bank.  I have a meagre savings! Before, I try to blame it on my “insufficient” salary. But then I realized that it has really something to do with my attitude...with my lifestyle. I’m not really materialistic but there are times that I just can’t resist buying things even though I can’t afford it anymore. Not proud of it! So before I fall in a financial rut, I have to make a commitment to change my ways. Yes, I’m aware that money is not everything but isn’t it nice to sleep soundly at night knowing that we don’t owe anyone and buying that dream house is already possible???  I’m pretty sure you know what I mean here, right?

I will never ever (as in EVER! Haha) forget something that I read before. It says that how can we manage if we have more already if we can’t fully manage when we have less yet. Well..something like that. No matter how “small” we  got..we should know how to manage... After all, it doesn’t matter actually how much we earn...its how much we spend and save that really matters.

Because of desperation...yes I’m desperate already...ok, more on MOTIVATED..to get out of this lifestyle before it turns out into a mess. Everything is not yet too late actually. There’s still hope. I can almost see the light at the end of the tunnel...naks! Haha! Seriously, I’m taking small steps every time: inhibit myself from being an impulsive buyer, thinking of making investments and turning it into a reality, sticking to the budget, save EACH MONTH, live below my means. Gosh these steps might get you thinking that I’m turning into some sort of a tight-fisted individual! I’m doing this because I want to realize my dream – to be financially free!

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