Category Archives: Financial Freedom

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From Financial Disaster to Financial Freedom

I believe that our Western Society has been set up for a long time against Financial Freedom. After working hard at school, it is not normal for fathers and mothers to pour out our adult lives, just working for the basics!

When a child has to let him or herself into their home after school, it's time to hope for better days.

In America, rare are the parents who are home from work in time to welcome their children home from school. In fact, most homes have two parents working overtime, just to make the mortgage payment.

What if you pursued a life where you have time to be with your kids, and do what you love? What would you call it?

I like to call it “Financial Freedom”

Financial Freedom is the ability to take care of yourself and your family without working long hours.

It is having time to spend with your family, and doing what you love.

When you have Financial Freedom, you have come to the place where you can work because you want to, not because you have to.

The Treasure Map to Financial Freedom

Image by WallpaperFlare.com
Start with a budget

The first step toward Financial Freedom is to prepare a budget of all your living expenses.

Your monthly expenses down on paper is like a treasure map to show you which direction you need to go to get your freedom.

Then, once you have your budget, there are four strategies which lead to Financial Freedom. Usually, the best way to get there involves a combination of these four steps:

  • Earning More Money (without having to work more hours)
  • Reducing monthly expenses (pay off that credit card, and own your car or truck)
  • Increasing your life skills (how to build a house, make bread, change the oil in your car, etc.)
  • Sharing responsibilities with other families (share your internet connection with your neighbor, rent a part of your home to a friend, etc.)

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When to make sacrifices to keep your job, and when to walk away

In my last post, I talked about how you can know when it is time to quit your job. In many ways, it is easier to know when to quit. Yet the pressure of your “life context” can make you keep working in a toxic work situation longer than you should.

However, some jobs are definitely worth the sacrifice you must make to keep them! When you find one of these, it is worth it to stay where you are rather than to run away from it.

How can you tell the difference? Below, you will find four questions you can ask to know for sure whether you should keep your job, or not.

Question 1: Do you have a great boss?

If so, keep your job, and make it work. Job satisfaction is worth far more than the money you make. And who knows? With time, you may move into a position that will make you so glad you stuck it out!

Keep your job if you find a boss like Mark and Ramona did!

I learned this tip from my dear friend Mark Vaillancourt. Just before he got to start working at Casa Shalom Orphanage in Guatemala, he told me about his job.

Mark worked as a handyman for a guy who truly cared for him and his family. His boss would often ask how they were doing. Their work relationship was much more than a paycheck. It was a deep friendship, a mutual rivalry between boss and employee to give out more than they received.

Mark and his boss made a deep impression on me.

I found such bosses at the Bar Harbor Inn. Whether it’s Jeremy the General Manager, David the Owner, or Josh and Laura, my supervisors, I’ve been blessed with the best. In the challenges I’ve faced, they genuinely care about how their guests, and employees, are doing.

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