How did Felicia go from being a natural spender to currently being on a journey to building wealth????? My short answer is this, I'll be 40 years old in a couple of months and started visioning how I wanted my life to be once I retire in about 25-30 years from now. I started asking myself, do I still want to be working in my 70's to pay off debt? Do I want to only live on a fixed income monthly with nothing extra for me to enjoy the rest of my life with? Finally, I said girl, do you really want to be 70+ years old talking about you're still paying on student loan debt? So after seeing those visions in my mind of myself still paying off debt with my money after I retire, got my mind together QUICKLY and onward towards my journey of building wealth.
I'll never forget a meme I saw on social media that basically said, we know how broke people live, we need to study how rich people live! When I saw that meme come across my timeline, I dropped so many emojis in the comments and instantly felt like the lightbulb in my brain turned on. I started watching YouTube videos studying Warren Buffet, Jay-Z, Dave Ramsey, Diddy and Diddy's mentor Ray Dalio and a host of other wealthy individuals. The common things that I could relate to were that they all read books often and were very kind and giving towards others. The things that they introduced to me were saving money and investing.
Saving money, I thought would be the hardest thing for me to do because remember I said I was naturally a spender. Investing is a form of spending money so that I knew, I would enjoy doing once I learned the basics. But saving money was going to take some time educating myself and creating a new habit to save money consistently. Fast forward a couple of days, it didn't take me long to implement my new savings habit because I shifted my mindset and found fun ways to literally save money without depriving myself of the simple things I enjoy the most in life.
Before embarking on this journey towards building wealth, I had heard about saving money a trillion times but no one actually taught me how and most Americans do not have at least $1,000 saved in an emergency fund. So I found formulas such as using the 50/30/20 rule starting out to help gain the momentum I needed to save money. Here's a basic breakdown of the formula:
50% use towards your essential bills (Ex., rent/mortgage, utilities, car note).
30% use for your entertainment, I call this "My Schmoney" in my bank account lol.
20% use for savings and paying off debt.
This formula was a game changer for me and now, I enjoy building wealth and not tempted anymore to spend money on things that I don't need or for the sake of just buying stuff. There are tons of budgeting styles and formulas out there so pick whatever fits your income and lifestyle.
Now, with this new habit of saving money, of course I still get tempted from time to time, to fall back into being a spender. But then, I redirect myself and weekly say these affirmations below to help keep me on track:
I have a wonderful business, in a wonderful way, I give wonderful service, for wonderful pay!
I am grateful to money because it allows me the freedom of time I desire to create what I love doing and impacting others.
I have the power to make it happen.
I love money because it comes when I call.
My fortune is in my faith.
I love money and I am grateful everyday that it's surrounding me with its glorious goodness.
I love money because I am a fearless, badass, money making machine.
I love money because it makes me more of who I truly am.
I have my dream job.
My clients appreciate and value my work.
Another thing that I saw wealthy people do is learn from other wealthy people who are in a better position than them. So I started following people on Instagram and subscribing to YouTube channels who are experts in personal finance, retirement and stocks. So now, I'm learning daily as I scroll on social media, how to build wealth! I believe wholeheartedly that God financially blesses those who are great stewards over the current money that He gives us. So if you can't be a great steward over $1,000 you're not gonna do right with $1 million dollars, and therefore your financial blessings will never hit your bank account.
Using affirmations is not enough, you have to also implement the skills, time and sacrifices needed to build wealth. I hope that you are inspired by this post, to start your own wealth building journey. What are your favorite affirmations or things that you are doing to help you build wealth? Post them in the comments.
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