#242 – Celebrating Financial Independence

Where is it today? The market has done wonders for us in the last couple of years. So things might have gotten out of whack. Where do you stand today? The question I'm asking you today is to just take a look, maybe you need more help and assistance in evaluating that. But I want you to benefit from this from this growth and the compound effect of how this could help us get closer to that financial independence. And also last point here is if you're working toward paying debts, and you know have put together plans, for example, like you pay an extra every month to eliminate that debt, whether it's like the snowball method or avalanche where maybe you're paying the debts that are higher in interest first versus higher and balance. Keep on doing that. Avoid adding more right to to kind of help you stay the course. So I feel like these basic things that we always need to be reminded off and revisited. help you stay the course because at the end of the day, the best way that you're going to measure your financial independence. Your success is whether you've lived a life that you're proud of and whether or not you've achieved your financial goal. In these things as boring as they might be for some of you, those are the things that help you stay the course. Now, excuse me. Now one other area that I am really passionate about is making sure that we teach our kids about money. This is like one of the topics that I'm growing more and more interested in is because I guess my son is growing. But also just really, as a parent, this is our job to raise money smart individuals. So what kind of system do you have for your kids? Are you guys teaching them basic money skills, just like what we talked about for us? But do you have an allowance system in place? I am starting to use Save spend jar with my son. So what are you implementing basic budgeting skills for kids to they need to understand how money moves where it comes from, maybe it's time to start charging them a little bit of, you know, expenses, rent, groceries, costs and things like that. Also making fun money games, right? There's games like kids monopoly that start to stimulate this money management idea. We started actually to play kids monopoly this year with Liam. And it's been a really interesting experience. And he loves it. He's still at the beginning, he was like, getting very upset and even cried when he started to get low on cash. And he was like, Well, I spent all my cash buying these properties. And so in his little mind, he was like, I am winning, when I have more more money, right? Or more cat, my cat, my cash pile was bigger versus no, you need to think structured strategically here and like invest in all of these properties, because then it starts to generate more money for you. So it took a few games, for us to kind of go through this idea. You're not losing, but you really are, you know, winning in the long run. So interesting how it all kind of evolves. But I love that a lot. So like these hands on practical experiences, books, I was reading, just recently, like I have a pile of kids books that I keep coming back. One is, Larry, the bunny saves the money. Like it's a really simple concept of like using carrots as measuring sticks to pay the taxes to save the money, and so forth. So whatever it is that you're doing, like keep coming back giving specific targeted goals to kids like this. One is, I need to start to developing that a little more in my family, but like, just like we have savings goals for ourselves. What about our kids? Why not give them a savings goal? If you have an allowance system? Or if you paying for chores? What are they doing with the money just just because they're putting it in those little jars? If you have that system, right? Or they're putting it in their savings bank, piggy bank, or if they have a savings account? So like, what's the goal, letting them learn how that works? Now, I feel like it's gonna be really, really good. Developing like that, you know, smart mindset around money. Some of you are real business, business and intrapreneurial kind of spirited, folks. So maybe you have ideas of like, things you can do with kids. We've been entertaining the idea of starting a lemonade stand. So like, what can you do with your kids to start to introduce these ideas in their heads, how they can learn money, skills, how they can earn money, too. So those are some of my top of the mind things that I'm sort of swimming in, practicing, working, talking to other parents, but like, this is the topic that we have to constantly revisit. It can't just be us working in and putting all of the money away. I know, I know you're doing that. And that's fantastic. But we need to be focusing on this least but not last, but not least, is I want since this is kind of like the celebratory discussion today, I want to remind you to celebrate your financial wins like this is this has been really helpful for me personally and professionally. It's just like, pause and give some time to reflect. I know we don't do that a lot. But what one of the things that helps you mentally and you know, practically also see your achievements is it if you give yourself time to analyze in say, not what you didn't accomplish. But what you actually did, there's a book that I highly recommend for you to check out. It's called the gap in the game. And so I mean, the concept is simple, but it's like, not what you didn't get, but rather what you actually achieved. So, but we need time, we need space, we need moments where we can look at all of this and that's where like starting with what are your goals? goals, what are you trying to accomplish, whether it's paying off your debts, maybe there's a vacation that you're saving for, or you know, anything else saving for your children's education, your own retirement and so forth, our short term goals, midterm goals and long term goals. So I want you to start having regular celebration moments for that. I know many of you who've been here for a while and listening to this podcast, I talked about my money, date, ideas and how I continue having conversations with my my significant other about kind of like where we are, I feel like this could be a good addition to your, you know, celebration, ideas or tools is to have those discussions it should be, it could be something very simple and innocent. Also, as your kids are growing, and you starting to have starting to introduce all these financial concepts for them, maybe it's time to have family financial meetings, where you are discussing and celebrating your progress with the kids involved. So actually, this is a good reminder for us to, for my family, your and I Liam is to start to kind of have more of those discussions together. I am of a belief that in you know, everybody has different values and beliefs and how they want to raise their kids. But I am of a belief that in the family, there is an of course, there, there shouldn't be any secrets in terms of like, you know, where you know how finances operated, where it works, it doesn't mean that you have to lay out all your financial plan and show everything to your kids. But the more open you are, the more conversations you can have, the more the more opportunities you have to educate your kids. And maybe this is me speaking from personal experience, because I didn't have that growing up. But I feel like that door from me, my mind is very open. So I suggest that you try that as well. Last but not least, here is I personally use a gratitude journal just to kind of help me look at life from a lens of like, what what is my gain versus what what is my gap? So I think the same could be applied for personal finances. So

keeping a gratitude journal that is focused on your financial achievements, if positive money habits because we tend to beat up ourselves about, oh, we spend too much money or we didn't save enough for all of those things. How about you look at this from a positive lens. And then last, give yourself a reward my friends, whatever it is, achieve your goal first, right? Like, no, you know, don't just reward yourself because just because, but tie it to something that you work for hard, right you have progress that you tracking, and and take time to celebrate. So as we're closing on this episode here, hopefully you had fun listening for my parallels and comparisons of like the hill oil history of Fourth of July and how I kind of am excited about that day in terms of our personal finances, but I do want your my friends, for you to feel excited, energized and use these tools to help you achieve your own financial independence. So however you are spending your holiday weekend this year with friends, friends and family remember that it is in your control of how all of these things unfold and I'm here to give you tools ideas and suggestions. So if you found this episode useful shared with a friend or family member, don't forget to leave me a review. If you're new here. I always love to get your comments and feedback and until next time, remember you are the bosses of your own money.