5 Financial Lessons on Creating More Freedom

This week, a good friend of mine reminded me that the world we live in is a world of mastering lessons, not to fix the world or yourself. Interestingly enough, we all come from a place that we are going to fix this and fix that when in reality, it’s actually just about the lessons to be learned.

When we have expectations of fixing things, like our finances, relationships, our kids, etc., we create a lot of shame, blame, guilt and judgement. These emotions just perpetuate our choice of suffering in this world. Until we choose to stop the insanity and really choose to live, really live, in the present moment.

I’ve witnessed many financial lessons over the years. If you’ve followed me for a while, you know that I always say we either work things out or act them out. We often act them out through our health or our money.  

When we financially act out our emotions, it comes in various packages. I’ll share some with you:

1. Give money in hopes to receive love.
2. Believe so much in one’s purpose/mission in life and I’ve witnessed those people over extend themselves regularly at the cost of being able to live in the present moment.
3. I’ve seen people take on “good” debt because it was a smart financial move, but lose their freedom to be nimble when life takes its course.
4. Take responsibility for others people’s stuff, all in the name of “just trying to help them out”.
5. Put the financial needs of others before my own.

Can you see how situations like these can trap you in a cycle of suffering, a cycle that keeps you stuck? You’re then stuck in a life that you’ve been trying so hard to avoid.

I’ve witnessed so many parents feel guilty because they worked too much, so they buy their kids things as an expression to show their love for their children, but it’s coming from the energy of feeling guilty.  

These feeling we have must be felt; otherwise, the energy behind those feelings will just come back and bite you in the butt. Instead of buying those items for your child, make a tough choice in life and recognize that you’d actually like it to be different. If those kids are already grown and this is what you did, just stop buying things for the holidays that are way out of your budget or paying for all the kids to go on vacation with you when you can’t afford it.  

We all know people these days that are doing things just like this because we are so afraid of just calling a spade, a spade, and make tactical changes in our lives that feed us more on a soul level.

Here are some of those tactical steps:

1. Only give money to others when the relationship is mutually beneficial.
2. Mitigate or reduce debt that you have already created to gain more freedom with current cash coming in and create more of your desired future without the bank or credit card company owning your life.
3. Every pay raise, bonus or tax return, take 1/3 of it and pay down debt, even good debt to create financial space in your life.
4. Allow those you love to fall on their face due to their own financial decisions. This will be their best teacher in their lives because you are not enabling them.
5. Choose not to help others at your own cost. Be sure you are obtaining your goals and dreams first and foremost. Just like on an airplane where you put your oxygen mask on first, then your child’s oxygen mask.

For more tips on how to create more financial freedom in your life, join us at www.juliemurphycasserly.com or my Facebook Page