What does financial freedom look like? Living in peace without a care in the world? Being confident that you are prepared to deal with whatever comes your way? Feeling blessed and content with what have? Yes, that's what it looks like. We are meant to enjoy life. Fear and uncertainty have no place in our lives.

What does your retirement plan look like? Are you saving a portion of your paycheck and hoping for the best? What about your personal finances? Do you struggle to make ends meet or worry about unplanned expenses? 

If you’re losing sleep over your lack of retirement planning or wondering how you’re going to pay the bills if something goes wrong, we invite you to come back each week. We promise to cover as many topics on personal finance and retirement planning as possible. We want this to be a resource you can turn to for guidance and inspiration.

What Makes Me the Expert?

Well, for one thing I’m 55 years old. I’m not old, but I’m not young, either. For another, I’m successful. I have a wife who loves me and a house and a dog and cars and a career and a 401(k). The picture hasn’t always been so rosy. My life has been shaped by experiences which have led me to develop a level of expertise in personal finance and retirement planning. 

EGGSTACK RETIREMENT CALCULATOR

I am twice-divorced and two times I have lost my job due to downturns in the economy. As a result, I have faced periods of unemployment and struggled for many years to make ends meet. For most of my life I have worked two jobs. As an engineer, I am fortunate to earn a good living which together with my other endeavors has enabled me to bounce back from what might have otherwise been knockout blows.

The most difficult time in my life was after my first divorce. After eight years of marriage, my wife and I had managed to accumulate a negative net worth. We owed more than the sum of our assets. When we got divorced, she got most of the assets and I got most of the debt.

At the time, taken together with the child support and alimony payments, it felt like an insurmountable burden. I moved into a one-bedroom apartment with little more than my clothes and a twin-size bed. It wasn’t even a bed, just a mattress on the floor. I furnished the apartment with a kitchen table donated by a friend and a couch I bought at a garage sale. 

Getting out of Debt 

That was over 25 years ago and I have come a long way since. If you are struggling with your finances, the first thing you need to do is seek sound advice. Learn everything you can about budgeting and saving and living beneath your means. Discover how to say no to impulse buying. The next step is to develop a plan. Keep track of your debts and chart your progress as you pay them off.

I made a chart of my debt and placed it on the wall above the kitchen sink. It was a hand-drawn pictograph of a hole in the ground and beside it was a graduated scale. The sum total of my debt was at the bottom of the hole and zero was at the top. Each month as I paid off more debt, I took a colored pencil and filled in the hole. That chart inspired me to keep focused on the goal. It helped me push aside things that stood in the way of achieving my objective. Finally, after more than a year, the hole was filled in.

But I didn’t stop there. It was a struggle but I remained disciplined and continued to live beneath my means. My savings increased and over time I managed to reestablish my standard of living. I bought everything used – furniture and appliances and toys for my kids. I shopped at thrift stores and garage sales and only when I couldn’t find what I was looking for I splurged and went to Walmart.

Losing half of everything you own not once but twice in a lifetime is a lot to bear. It took many years, but eventually I managed to buy a house and a new car and I reached a point where I felt like I was back on my feet again. Through it all I never once picked up the phone and asked my parents for help.

The Love of Money 

Two things I know to be true: the love of money is the root of all evil, and for those who love money there is never money enough. I don’t believe there is anything wrong with being ambitious, as long as you don’t let your ambition take over your life. It’s important to keep things in perspective and recognize that there’s more to life than money. 

Everything is not always as it seems, and much of how we experience life is in how we perceive it. I have found that a big part of being content is adjusting your expectations. I can see a big house or a fancy car and think that I might like to have that, but then I ask myself, why? Is it to impress other people? Who are they? People I don’t even know? People who might feel envious or dislike me precisely because I own those things? It makes no sense to work so hard to buy things to impress people we don’t know.

Conclusion 

The key is to be content with what you have. People living at the poverty level in America have it better than much of the rest of the world. The primary objective should be self-sufficiency. If you can meet your basic needs and still have something left over to save for retirement and unexpected expenses you have really achieved something.

Photo credit: Pixabay Eggstack News will never post an article influenced by an outside company or advertiser. Our mission is to help you overcome uncertainty about retirement planning and inspire confidence in your financial future.