58: Your Financial Freedom Awaits: A Proven Framework To Your Financial Goals
Nov 16, 2023
Carolyn
Imagine stepping into your dream home, a space you can call your own, free from the constraints of rent. Yes, that's right, homeownership is within your reach, and I'm here to guide you. Gain insights from my unique framework, REDUCE (Realize, Educate, Demonstrate, Undo, Collaborate, and Execute), which is designed to help you reduce debt and establish a strong financial foundation before leaping into homeownership.
What if you had a proven plan to undo financial damage and build sustainable wealth? Well, you're in luck! On this episode, we zoom in on the pivotal role of a realistic budget, a strategic debt repayment plan, and a tactical savings plan in achieving your financial goals. You'll learn why teaming up with financial experts (like money coaches 😊) can be a game-changer. Even more, I reveal my comprehensive digital course, Simply Paid Off, created to propel you on your journey to debt freedom. As a special treat, there's a sweet Black Friday deal awaiting you!. So, are you ready to claim your financial freedom and make strides towards your dream home? Listen in and let's make that dream a reality!
Claim your VIP access to the Simply Paid Off Digital Course. With early with pre Black Friday Pricing. Click below 👇🏽 Simply Paid Off - VIP
Imagine stepping into your dream home, a space you can call your own, free from the constraints of rent. Yes, that's right, homeownership is within your reach, and I'm here to guide you. Gain insights from my unique framework, REDUCE (Realize, Educate, Demonstrate, Undo, Collaborate, and Execute), which is designed to help you reduce debt and establish a strong financial foundation before leaping into homeownership.
What if you had a proven plan to undo financial damage and build sustainable wealth? Well, you're in luck! On this episode, we zoom in on the pivotal role of a realistic budget, a strategic debt repayment plan, and a tactical savings plan in achieving your financial goals. You'll learn why teaming up with financial experts (like money coaches 😊) can be a game-changer. Even more, I reveal my comprehensive digital course, Simply Paid Off, created to propel you on your journey to debt freedom. As a special treat, there's a sweet Black Friday deal awaiting you!. So, are you ready to claim your financial freedom and make strides towards your dream home? Listen in and let's make that dream a reality!
Claim your VIP access to the Simply Paid Off Digital Course. With early with pre Black Friday Pricing. Click below 👇🏽 Simply Paid Off - VIP
Hello everyone. My name is Carolyn. Welcome to the Saving for your First Home podcast. I am the CEO of the Financial Moment. We offer money coaching for those who are ready and willing to make financial changes in their lives. For the most of us, there comes a point in time where we think to ourselves it would be really nice to own property, but it sometimes can feel like a pipe dream and not very easily obtainable. So I created this podcast to give you all the information and tools you need to take the steps forward toward home ownership. Take it from me my husband and I started our lives together, working part-time jobs with a young child. Fast forward, through many hiccups and failures, we stepped our feet into our very first home. For us it was a pile of dirt, but eventually our family home was built on that dirt. Now we are in the midst of growing our investment property portfolio. I created the savings for your first home podcast to give you easy, actionable tools for you to do the same. If you have that same gut feeling that I did and want to create a life for yourself and your growing family, but don't know where to start, you are in the right place. Let's do this. Hello everyone and welcome back to the Saving for your First Home podcast. I'm Carolyn, your money coach, so I hope you guys got a chance to join me on Instagram live.
Speaker 1:
For the last five days, we have had a great time walking through the Slasher Debt Guide. Now if you haven't picked it up yet, then head to thefinancialmomentcom backslashdebtrap and there you will get an extensive laid out guide, step by step, on how you can pay off your debt. So I thought I would actually expand on this topic this week because it is such an important one, and I just came off doing a presentation on this exact topic and I realized that I haven't shared all this information with you guys. So I thought that's what I could do today, because, as a first time home buyer or someone that is going into a major financial purchase, you want to ensure that you have the foundations of your finances intact, because I sure didn't. I remember clearly when we were thinking about purchasing a home and it seemed so overwhelming we were barely just hanging on budget. That wasn't even a word in our vocabulary and, you know, someone gave us one tip on how to save money and, to be honest with you, that is how we got there. I only wish that we had guides and podcasts and YouTube channels and all these things to access as resources back then. Maybe I wouldn't have made so many mistakes. So I am hoping I'm crossing my fingers that you guys are going to jump into the world of home ownership with as much knowledge as possible.
Speaker 1:
I read an article today and it was talking about the housing market and they called it going into hibernation. So what do you think that really means? According to the Canadian Real Estate Association, they are saying that, quote unquote we are only in November, but it appears many would be home buyers have already gone into hibernation. So you know what that means, right? People are not buying. The home buyers are quiet. They're in hibernation, which means we're heading into a buyer's market. This is where the sellers have less power and the buyers have more buying power.
Speaker 1:
So my question to you is are you ready? Are you ready? Do you have your financial foundation in place? Do you have your down payment set aside? Are you ready to check out properties, get pre approved and all the steps that are required to make this major purchase? Because if it is a buyer's market, that means that the prices are going to either flatten out or drop. Now the other speculation is that interest rates may start to come down. Now we can't promise anything, but if the market starts to stabilize and we're finding that there are more properties on the market, then trend will tell us that the interest rates might start to drop. So these are good indicators for a first time home buyer, because it means that you're going to have access to get into the market without bidding wars and there'll be a lot more selection to choose from.
Speaker 1:
So if the answer to the question are you ready? Is not a big yes, then there is still some work to do with your financial foundation. So I'm going to go through a framework that talks about how to build this foundation. So we're going to use the word reduce and we're going to build it as an acronym, so it's easy to remember and you'll know exactly the steps that you need to take. So r stands for realize, e stands for educate, d stands for demonstrate, u stands for undo, c stands for collaborate and e stands for execute.
Speaker 1:
All right, so let's dive in. So what does it mean to realize? Well, if you do have debt and your financial position isn't strong, then you have to realize what is it that's going wrong, and there are some indicators that will tell you this. Number one do you have financial stress? Are you having stress and anxiety about unmanageable debt? Are you feeling guilty and ashamed about the debt that you can't manage? That's one indicator your credit score. We talked about credit score in a previous episode of this podcast, and if you are struggling to maintain a positive credit score, that is an indicator that your financial situation is not correct. And if you are limiting yourself with financial options, is it difficult to get credit? Are you having difficulty saving, making investments, dealing with unexpected expenses? These are all indicators that your financial position needs some work.
Speaker 1:
So the first step of all of this is to realize what is happening. So the second letter was e, and that was for educate. So I know I'm preaching to the choir when I'm talking to you guys, because you're on this podcast, you're listening, you're learning, you're proving your financial literacy, but there is probably work that needs to be done there. So what you need to do is seek out the information that you need. For instance, do you know how to build an emergency savings fund? If you don't know how to build one and you don't have one, then you are going to end up in debt. I can guarantee that, because something's going to come up and you're not going to have the resources to be able to deal with that situation. So understanding how to build an emergency savings fund is one of the fundamentals. The next thing that you can educate yourself on is really how to develop a budget that works for you. I know budgets seem restrictive and not something that is super fun, but if you can customize it to make it work for your habits and the way you operate, then it is very easy to follow. So understanding how to develop this type of a budget is also very key.
Speaker 1:
The third thing is understanding your debt and how your interest is being calculated. There are different types of debts, so mortgage debt is one thing, but you have revolving debt, which is like a credit card. You have car loans, you have lines of credit. Each one of these debt types have a different way of calculating interest, and you need to understand how that works, because knowledge is power. Once you understand how it works, then you can implement some strategies to reduce it.
Speaker 1:
And finally, do you know how to change your spending habits? You know habits are an interesting thing, right? They're easy to form if they're bad and hard to form if they're good. It's like going to the gym. Right, you know you need to go to the gym to ensure that you work out, to ensure that you keep your body in shape, but why does your mind always fight with you every time you need to go? I don't know the answer to that. Trust me, I struggle myself. But if you know how to change those habits, then maybe just doing one thing a day to change them will make a huge difference.
Speaker 1:
So, bottom line, you need to make sure that you're educated and you understand how to build the financial foundations. But it's not enough to know. You have to demonstrate, and that's the next letter D for demonstrate. How do you demonstrate the things that you've learned? Well, I'll give you some examples. Number one is to cut some unnecessary expenses. If you find that you're having a hard time saving or putting money away or paying down debt, then you may have too many expenses, and so going through them and assessing what it is that you can cut or get rid of or reduce is demonstrating that you are putting your goals first and that change is going to have a big impact on your bottom line. Another way to demonstrate this financial knowledge that you've obtained is to prioritize debt repayment. So, although we have our goals of perhaps buying a home, or we have other major financial purchases that we want to invest in, prioritizing your debt is key to maintaining a good credit score and building that solid financial foundation. Another easy way is to automate things right Automate your bill payments, automate your savings, automate your debt repayment. Getting it easy for yourself is really going to set you at a new level, because you know, relying on yourself sometimes isn't the greatest option. I can barely remember my kid's name sometimes. And now we're ready to undo.
Speaker 1:
We want to undo some of the damage that we've caused by making those bad financial choices of the past. So one of them could be avoiding emotional spending. Spending can be the result of something that is an emotional thing that's happening to you. You could be excited about something that's happened in your life and you want to go out and celebrate with people, right. And then you spend money that you may not already have budgeted. Or it could be the opposite and you're trying to cope with stress and you're scrolling on Amazon and you're just throwing things into your cart, right. So emotional spending is something that you can take a look at what's happened in the past and undo this type of behavior and you can create a budget and actually stick to it. Right, you want to undo the thinking that a budget is not going to work for you. Developing a realistic budget is not that hard, so I'll give you a small example. If you have, let's say, a set amount for groceries, and that's like $200. But you know that the cost of food is much higher than it was back, even a year ago. So therefore, the budget needs to be adjusted right. It needs to be increased, because come Wednesday, all of your groceries are done and you're going to be seeking takeout to fulfill your food needs. So undoing this type of behavior can really set yourself up for a good foundation. And then C C is for collaborate.
Speaker 1:
It is so important to reach out to others to ask for help. You don't need to run this journey alone. So there are people like accountants, right. They can help you with your taxes, ensuring that you're filing taxes every year, claiming all the things that you should claim. Very important to have one of those on your back pocket A credit counselor.
Speaker 1:
Now, this is if you're in some severe debt and you need some help with malcomating your debts and getting back on track. A credit counselor can be helpful in that regard. A money coach? Hey, that's me. Someone who can help you with managing your finances, creating budgets, creating a strategic plan, helping you to understand how to pay off your debt. You know there are so many benefits of having a money coach, but then you know you don't need to pay for services. You can just get a personal mentor, somebody that you admire, that you respect, that you trust, that can help you and walk with you along this journey, right?
Speaker 1:
You want them to be able to encourage growth. You want them to be approachable. You want them to be able to give you constructive feedback when you really need it, and you want them to have a good track record. You want them to be proven. Have they helped people in the past? Have they done what they say they're going to do? Right? You want them to be accountable as well. So collaboration is very important, and now it's time for E, which is execute. It's your turn to do your part. Once you have all these things laid in place, it's time to execute. So, whether that be a budget, whether that be a debt repayment plan, whether that be a savings plan, whether that be setting up your bill payments to be automated all of these different things are now in your court. It is up to you to set up the proper systems in order to ensure that you can reach your financial goals.
Speaker 1:
Now, luckily, you are not alone. I have some great tools for you to help you along this journey, because financial freedom is an ongoing journey. It requires discipline and responsible financial behavior, and it's not easy to do it by yourself. So I am so excited to publicly share that I will be launching a digital course. The title is Simply Paid Off. So what does that imply? I am going to teach you everything you need to know on how to pay off your debt. Okay, so here are some of the highlights we're going to uncover why debt has become so unmanageable for you. We're going to access your current financial situation, and then we're going to create a tailored debt elimination plan that is specific to your needs. And then we're going to grasp the importance of credit and then learn how to develop mindful spending habits. So I have truly poured my heart and soul into this course, which means that there is so much more that is included, so I will put the link to the course in the show notes of this episode so that you guys can take a look and see exactly what it has to offer.
Speaker 1:
Now, of course because I am true, at heart, a shopper that it wouldn't be right if I didn't provide a discount. So you know what next week is. It is Black Friday, and that is the biggest sale of the year for the most part, and so this is a one-time only offer. It will come out on Black Friday and it will end on Cyber Monday, and you will never see this price a-ing, and that is 50% off the cost of the course. So the total cost of the course is $197 and it will be marked down 50% for Black Friday. And on top of that, I cannot forget the loyalty of the podcast listeners.
Speaker 1:
And so, therefore, I am giving you guys an automatic upgrade to VIP, and what that means is not only do you get the digital course, you will also get six Q&A sessions throughout the course delivery. So what that means is you are gonna have access to me to ask me your direct questions and I will provide you with the answer. So anything you're struggling with, you can just hit me up with a question and I am definitely going to share that week by week as we go through each module together. So your VIP upgrade starts right now and it ends on November 23rd at midnight, so that's just before Black Friday. So you guys have one week access to grab the digital course and be upgraded with a VIP.
Speaker 1:
After Black Friday begins, that deal goes away. So, again, I hope to see you guys on the other side and, like I said, I've put my heart and soul into this course and I want to ensure that you have everything you need to get to your financial goals. Have an awesome week. Thank you for listening. We are committed to helping you place your very first steps into your new home. See you next time.