A few months ago, one of the managers at the workplace asked me to speak in front of her teams about the 3 simple steps to financial independence. This was after I had my speech about the same topic in one of our Toastmaster’s meeting. So all I really had to do was reuse my speech and add some more information because this second time, I am given a full 30-minute speech/lecture.
To give you a background, I decided to become active again
in Toastmaster’s for two reasons: 1) obviously, I want to improve more in
public speaking and 2) I want to reach more people in my advocacy for financial
freedom. Hence, when I was asked to speak to the teams of probably about 20
people, it was more of an indulgence rather than doing a favor. Haha.
Anyhow, on Monday, I did the speech/lecture. I think it went
well that I even surprised myself I was able to answer questions calmly and
collectively. Lol! I just know I need to do this more. It’s really a great way
to pay forward: to share everything I've learned in the past 9 months from the
generous people I barely know personally and to inspire ordinary people like me
that it is possible to be financially free because I myself is walking the
talk. So when I say that this journey to financial freedom is not easy, it’s
not hearsay. That it really is coming
from a personal experience. Note the
operative word “personal” which simply means personal finance is not a one size
fits all. I make my own. You make your own. But we can learn from each other.
:)
In my speech, I discussed only these 3 simple steps to start
on the journey:
- Pay yourself first.
Income-Savings=Expenses
Notes:
·
Save at least 20% of income.
·
Rent/mortgage <28% of income.
·
For food/groceries, $100/per person in the
household is more than enough.
- Pay your debts ASAP and
stop incurring any more debts.
If there are debts, one can choose
to put ½ Savings (see above) to the savings account and ½ Savings to paying
debts.
Notes:
·
Read about Debt Snowball.
·
Stop using your credit cards. Pay in Cash.
·
Read about budgeting (I’ll be giving a workshop
soon on this and I am very excited. Lol!)
·
Get extra income (sell stuff you don’t need,
sideline2x pag may time, negotiate with your boss)
·
Live below your means.
· Oh, you can leverage on debts. But you just have to do #3 and a couple of other steps first.
- Build up an emergency
fund.
This is just one of the “priority” Savings
categories. Other categories include retirement fund, educational fund, and
other financial goals.
Notes:
·
What counts as an emergency is a life and death
situation. Not because SM and Ayala are selling stuff on sale. Again, read
about budgeting.
·
Stop using your credit cards for emergency
stuff. You prepare for it in cash.
·
Emergency fund must at least be 3 month worth of
expenses. How much is it? You wouldn't know unless you have a budget in place.
Again, read about budgeting.
I think I gave a lot of other information that have been
very useful to me. I also shared with them the budgeting template I use with a
tab for reminders and links to resources. :) The discussion we had was so
amusing, really. I encouraged them to use the budget envelope system and
discussed how it works. I could see in some faces that they found it hard and
unbelievable. But I had to tell them it works and that I do it this way:
God
bless us all. :)
