Boring Money Opportunity…
Although my partner and I are getting closer to controlling our finances effectively, “complacent” would best describe our consistency…hmmmm. Anyway, an important element of creating financial freedom in life is dependent on your discipline of being aware of all incoming and (especially) outgoing expenses.
Motivated by the reality of expecting our second baby, I recently attempted to decisively gain control of all things monetary. I made a list with my partner of all outstanding expenses, from our previous year’s tax to work expenses, private medical insurance rebates, mostly awkward administrative related tasks, boring processes……..all offering REAL financial gain. I was kicking myself when I totalled the listed tasks to find we could create over $6,000 by sitting down and doing the uninspiring.
Reading about all ideas that resonate with creating a “lateral income”, I realise that some opportunities/ paths we may want to take, require capital, money to spend that so many people just don’t have at hand. My question is, – Do you?
I personally think laterally when under pressure, sometimes the dilemma is responsible for the solution. Perhaps I can provide you the inspiration by sharing the financial success created with the boring paperwork around the home office/ fridge magnets!
Options, New Directions, Blank Pages.
As a young man, my boss at the hotel I worked at requested I take two weeks of annual leave before Christmas. I’d been working in the hotel for nearly five years and had accumulated a large amount of leave, the company wanted that reduced for financial reasons. So as I’d just finished studying and with it being late November at the time, I had a spontaneous moment; what to do, where to go?
A friend was driving interstate in 10 days from Darwin to Perth (4350km/ 2700 miles), so I asked to tag along for the road trip, figuring I’d fly home on arrival. As I packed I realised many options this instant and prescribed direction contained. Stay in Perth for a week, a month, permanently? That was it, “I’m relocating in 10 days!” Hey, I was 20 and owned about……a guitar and a box of clothes!!….no, seriously.
I’m discussing this experience because I wanted to relate a thought/ feeling I had on the first night setting up the tent at Lake Argyle after an 820km/ 510mile drive. The change in climate, the different layout of the land, the REFRESHINGLY new headspace I’d gained as I was now in a transition of life, I was inspired and rewarded for taking action in a new direction. I was also sharply aware of how stagnant I was in life… ouch!
These liberating thoughts made me feel alive and positive. I felt this way when buying my first website, writing the first blog. Options I chose to take from many directions available in life every day. Sometimes you need to be pushed out of routine before you can gain clarity. If life feels “medicated” to you, I can recommend you act on an option available to you that sparks your interest and perhaps initially makes you uncomfortable. Give it a license to do so, embrace that blank page that dares you to create!