In our brand new interview series, we are interviewing various individuals from across the web. This interview series focuses on how they are living a better life. They can be living a better life by pursuing financial independence, minimalism, simplicity, and many more aspects. Are you interested in being interviewed? Continue reading!
Want to be interviewed?
If you want to be interviewed about how you are living a better life. Contact us at TimLifeForTheBetter@gmail.com and tell us why you’d be a great candidate!
Give us your best elevator speech!
Hi, I’m Dela the creator of Savvy Money Moms which is a blog aimed at moms who want to get out of debt and build wealth. I’ve not always had a very good relationship with money and have made some really dumb mistakes in the past like using my student loan to buy my first car. I recently turned 40 (wow that sounds so old) and decided that it was time to get serious about all things money. My husband and I are on a journey to finally finish paying off our debts and build as much passive income as we can. We’ve gone to some crazy extreme lengths to do just that. I’ll tell you about that in just a moment.
How are you living a better life than you were last year? 5 years ago? 10?
I would say we are much more financially fit now. There have been a lot of major changes happen for us and a lot of eye-opening has been done in the past few years.
Last year was when the whole money situation really started to click for me. I started to finally understand the financial mistakes that we had made and more importantly why they were mistakes. Although we had wanted to clear our debts before I was finally angry enough about it to actually full-on commit to throwing everything at it and really educating myself about money.
5 years ago, almost exactly 5 years ago we made the decision to temporarily leave the UK in order to get a better handle on our financial situation. We packed our bags with our 3 (now 4) children and moved to Ghana where the cost of living is much lower. Its wasn’t an easy decision to make but it was necessary. We were deep in financial debt ($34,000 to be precise) and each month it was getting worse. Today we are about $8000 away from being completely debt-free.
10 years ago I was 30 and just had my first child. I bought what I wanted when I wanted and hardly ever looked at my bank account. I thought debt was just something that you managed. Debt was normal to me. As long as we could continue to borrow we could continue to spend. That was the extent of my knowledge.
What would you tell your younger self?
I would tell myself that it’s ok to still be figuring things out. For the longest time, I struggled with finding my identity and that led me to spend way too much money on things I didn’t need. A car, clothes, holidays. It didn’t matter as long as it gave me status and made me feel good.
I would also tell myself to have more self-belief in the things that I wanted to do. I’ve always had a keen interest in finance but never fully pursued it because people didn’t believe that I could do it, especially when I was in school. I believed them more than I believed in myself.
The final thing I would tell myself is to hang out with people that had the drive to pursue their passions fearlessly. Birds of a feather flock together and all that good stuff!
As you can see I have quite a lot of advice to tell myself!
What made you want to change the way you were living?
The more children that I had the more I realized that my husband and I were walking on a tight string. We should already have thought about retirement and have plans in place for our children in the future if we want them to be able to do better than us. Unfortunately living paycheck to paycheck doesn’t allow for that to happen unless you strategically plan for it aggressively.
I knew we had to change something but I didn’t know how until I began pursuing my passion – finance.
Does financial independence play a role? If so, how?
Most definitely. No one wants to live a life only being able to do what their bank balance allows them to do.
I want my children to experience different countries, see what it’s like to have nice things and also what it’s like to not have much. I don’t want to be restricted in the type of school my children can go to either.
I want to be able to make these choices myself and not have my bank balance dictate to me.
I believe that is called being financially independent.
What advice do you have for others in living a better life?
Don’t be afraid to try something new or out of the box. People will always tell you that you are making a mistake but usually, that is coming from a place of fear on their part.
Your gut feeling will tell you so much if you give it the chance. If you fail at something SO WHAT, now you know how not to do it.
Life moves along way too quickly for you to always be second-guessing yourself. Educate yourself and go for it.
What books/podcasts/blogs have you consumed that lead you to this point?
My journey started out with my first blog which is all about pregnancy. Once I started making money from that I realized that I could do the same thing again but in an area that I was super passionate about. I began reading all of Dave Ramsey’s books and I have recently fallen in love with the millennial money blog. I read lots of blogs and seek to further educate myself on finance a little bit more each day. I’ve even signed up with Audible just so I can get through books more quickly. It’s something that I naturally love so it’s easy for me to do.
What’s one area in your life you still struggle with?
Investing is still a big one for me. I love the idea of it and have used property as an investing tool in the past but I really want to learn more about investing in stocks and bonds. It all sounds really scary at first but the more I read the more confidence I seem to gain.
I guess I’m worried about losing the money and ending up back in debt. One thing I have learned about money is that if you don’t plan for it then you likely lose it. The plan is to read up a bit more on investing and get started on it in the next couple of months. I will definitely document my journey once I start on that.
If you had to give just 1 tip that you’ve learned along your journey, what would it be and why?
I would say just go for it. There will always be nay-sayers in everything you do so you might as well do it right?
Any time you go against the grain people will think you are weird or that it’s not possible. Show them that it is possible and don’t worry if it goes wrong. Just pick yourself up and start again.
Where can readers get in touch with you?
I blog at Savvy Money Moms but you can also find me on Facebook and Instagram
Don’t feel shy to pop on over!
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