Oola Life: I am Financially Free!

When I was much younger than I am now, my father told me that if you want to feel richer you need to spend less than you make. It took me a few years to apply this wisdom to my life, but when I did I discovered a freedom from fear that only comes when you are DEBT FREE! You can experience this joy too. Start today by honestly looking at the "luxury extras" in your life.  For me, that might be regularly staying in resort RV parks that cost $50-$100 a night instead of staying at state or federal parks for $15-$20 night. Now, there's nothing wrong with staying at the resort RV park if you make enough money to pay cash for it. When it becomes a "wrong choice" for me is when I need to charge my RV campsite to my credit card because I really can't afford to pay cash.

Over the years I saved thousands of dollars by eliminating just a few luxuries. Each may seem small and insignificant but together they add up. For example, I no longer get a daily fancy coffee out at a restaurant (You know the place, it starts with an S). If you multiply that daily $5 fancy coffee by 300 days, you will see that this saved me $1,500. So is this small deprivation worth it? For me, the answer is yes! That and many other small choices over the years helped me to save money so I could retire early. It let me pay cash for my RV so I could travel around the United States full time without any debt. It is allowing me now to live at home to provide full-time caregiving to my parents without worrying about money.

My next step in maintaining this sense of financial freedom is to learn how to manage my money better so it goes further. In their book, Oola: Find Balance in an Unbalanced World, Dave, and Troy (the Oola Guys) challenge us to learn all we can about managing money and to apply what we learn to our lives. By knowing more we can make better choices about how we invest, donate, and use our money to make the world a better place for ourselves, those we love and our communities. As I help my aging parents, I can see how important it is that we all know and understand the economy and governments of the places where we live so we can best utilize the financial resources we've worked so hard to earn and save. In the future, if you see me diffusing my Young Living oils in my RV while pouring over financial websites and reading books on how to manage money, you'll know I'm working hard to grow in the financial area of my Oola life.

So, now I challenge you to consider what you can do to bring more financial balance to your life. Do you feel free from debt or are you anxious when the bills come?  Are you using your money in the best ways to serve your needs and the needs of others or is fear holding you back?  If you could change one thing in the way you manage your money, what would it be?