Our Family Downsized and Lowered Our Cost of Living by $40,000 per Year

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Have you ever felt like the harder you try to get something the harder it is to actually get? Like when you spent the first 3 years of high school trying to be your sexiest self to reel in someone of the opposite sex. Then your senior year you decided to just give up and have fun when all of a sudden you meet a special someone? Of course, this is an example, but I’m hoping you know what I mean. Well, that’s kind of how this worked for my family and I. For years we wanted more money. We stressed over lack of money. Then, one day we decided to put our focus on other things and one day we woke up and realized we had generated $40,000 … on accident. The thing is, you can do it on purpose. Here’s how…

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Get clear about what you want

The first step to generating more money on accident or on purpose is starting by knowing what you want.

If this concept sounds totally bananas to you, I promise it’s not! In fact, I built my entire Bucket List Budget course around the belief that you get to decide what you want with your life and then you make your money work to make it happen!

Ditching the big house

For our family, we knew we didn’t want our house anymore. It was too big, took too much time to clean, too much money to maintain and the mortgage was something that felt like wasted money. Here’s the full story.

So we moved.

After that, we kept our sites set on only the things we wanted the most. So let me ask you, what 5 things do you want to be able to say about your life when you have reached the end of your life? Maybe your list looks like this:

I spent a lot of time with family
Traveled the world
Always put people before things
Made a comfortable living
Gave generously

Okay, so once you have a list, tell me…does how you’re living your life right now align with that list?

The first way to tell is by looking at how you spend your money.

This family thought they were just downsizing to live the simple life and wound up generating an additional $40K per year! Now they want to tell you how!

Find what doesn’t align

None of us want to admit that we waste money. The sob story of, “I try so hard but the money just disappears” is a convenient story that takes all the pressure off of us. Except that somewhere hiding in the back of our minds we know it’s total crap.

If those 5 things are something you want for your life, what are you spending money on right now that doesn’t align? Whare you spending money on that is actually hindering you from attaining these goals?

For a deep dive into this, I walk you step by step through the entire process in The Bucket List Budget, otherwise here are some tops areas to focus on.

Impulse purchases that we convince ourselves we need
Over-spending on food or going out to eat
Cable or subscription TV services that keep us on our bums all-day
Debt

That stupid debt

Now the debt is the tough one. No matter what the reason, you still have to admit that you brought it into your life. Whether it was with good intentions or without barely even thinking about it. AKA credit cards.

What a lot of people do is allow themselves to continually pay the minimum amount toward debt while repeatedly swiping their credit cards. We give in to instant gratification that actually keeps us further from those big 5 goals we so badly want to achieve.

Get out of your own head (and then come back)

Stop with the pity party talk when it comes to money. Work tirelessly to keep your sites focused on your big 5 wins that you want to achieve.

Whenever you’re tempted to swipe a credit card or take money out of savings ask yourself, “Is this lining up with what I say I want for myself?” and “How long is this item going to bring joy?” If it’s not lasting joy, let it go.

Ditch what doesn’t align

Let me be clear, your mindset plays a huge roll in your success. Not just with making more money, but with everything in your life.

You ditch whatever doesn’t align.

After you’ve gotten clear about what you want, be ready to say goodbye to anything that doesn’t help you get there. That might mean things like:

Unused gym memberships
Netflix
Your debt (here’s a payoff strategy)
$100 of your out to eat expenses

Yes, there are so many expenses you can ditch. That’s the main accidental reason behind our additional $40K — we just decided to get rid of stuff we didn’t really want. But then, we also had to stop ourselves from doing it all over again.

The exact process

If you want step-by-step guidance through the entire process of managing your money better, lowering your cost of living, and paying off debt, The Bucket List Budget was made for you! I’ll guide you through the entire process of freeing up your income so that you can do more with the same amount of money!

Quit keeping up

Stop looking at what everyone else is doing and allow yourself to believe that you need to be doing it all too. Ask yourself first, do you want that house? Do you want to go to Cabo? Maybe you love your tiny apartment. Perhaps you prefer your local beach over the chaos of Cabo.

So often we put ourselves in silent competition with people around us or those we see on social media. This is detrimental to your finances.

The more you get laser-focused about what you want, the more you stop feeling the need to want what everyone else has.

Make smart moves

Once you have started to free up additional funds, be smart with them. Learn how to automatically save your money before you even begin to miss it. Find the best savings accounts that actually pay you to save more!

I promise a life with more financial freedom is possible. Not convinced? Check out my course, The Bucket List Budget to get more details on how this low-effort method of money-making really works and how you can make it work for you!