What if you no longer had to work to make a living? Part Three.
11. Learn new skills so that you can do some things yourself
The world has become about convenience. We do not have the time or the skills to do something ourselves so we outsource to a specialist. There is nothing wrong with this, but the expenses do pile up over time. What are some skills we could pick up that would limit these expenses and allow us to maintain ourselves and our possessions?
Auto/Bike Repair
Basic Health Care/Para Medic
Carpentry
Cooking
Gardening
Plumbing/Electrical
Building/Painting
Sewing
Value based share investing
12. Holiday the right way
Going to new and exciting places is on most of our bucket lists. South Africa is a beautiful country and there are dozens of incredible places we have never been that can be accessed via car and where we can camp in a Tent or a Caravan.
13. Cars are a money pit: choose wisely
We love cars. They are a sign of status and wealth. The truth is they are a tremendous money pit. In between the financing, costs of servicing and the exorbitant petrol price, we are getting a financial hiding.
The best solution would be to buy a reliable second-hand car (with 100% cash if we can) that is easy and affordable to service with great spare part availability. The car should be suitable for our needs (We don’t need a 4×4 if the place we live, the work we do or the places we travel don’t call for it).
Maintain it regularly and keep it as long as possible. There comes a point in every cars life where something new breaks every month or so, that is the point to cut our losses and to move onto our next vehicle. A rule of thumb would be 10 years or 200 000 kilometres.
14. Live close to work
A long car commute to work in traffic produces a tremendous amount of stress (and many of us do it 5 days a week!). Living closer to work allows us to walk to work if we can, if we can’t walk then we can jog, if we can’t jog then we can cycle, if we can’t cycle then we can use public transport, if we can’t use public transport then we can car pool. Less stress, less money and better health. It’s a triple win.
15. Be frugal, not cheap
It is inevitable that someone we care about is going to invite us out to an expensive restaurant for a special occasion. We should go. Have Johnny Walker Red instead of Blue. Skip the starter. Have a 200g rump instead of a 400g rump. Forget about the extra side dishes. Skip dessert. Have an Americano instead of a Cappuccino.
In closing
Financial freedom can open the door to the lives we want to live. Imagine being able to do the work we’ve always wanted to do and not having to worry about the size of the pay cheque. Imagine being able to travel all over the country and absorb all its beauty without the stress of having to be at the office on Monday. Imagine being able to keep a daily or weekly schedule that allows us to do all the things we want to do each day without having to worry about hurrying back to the office. Imagine being able to watch our children growing up and being able to be at every sports game and every event. It’s up to us to take the initiative. I hope that these 15 points mentioned in this article can help us to take the first steps on our journey to our own financial freedom.
