Financial freedom is a common goal for many people. But how do you achieve it? Will it really make you happy? Krisstina Wise has an answer. The millionaire coach has loads of experience earning, saving, and losing money. She has been through severe financial upsets, and now she helps other people find their financial freedom.
The Delicate Balance of Money Matters
How much does money matter? Wise believes that money is of utmost importance. Without it, she might not be alive.
A decade ago, Wise was doing extremely well with her real estate brokerage. But she became seriously ill in 2013. After spending almost a quarter of a million dollars in medical bills, Wise says that money saved her life.
But what kind of life do you have if all that you’re doing is managing your income? Wise admits that she enjoyed investing and developing a passive income stream. However, she was driven by her financial goals.
Even though she was concentrating on creating passive income, she didn’t have free time in which to pursue other interests. She had a one-track mind, and it was on money.
After she recovered from her illness, Wise wasn’t sure what living a fulfilled life entailed if it didn’t involve making money. She recognized how vital her financial assets were when it came to overcoming her sickness. But she was driven to discover herself on a deeper level.
Money Is an Intimate Relationship
Before she got sick, Wise was all about investing, scaling her business, and making her mark in the real estate world. Then, she fell out of the limelight for a while. That’s when her priorities shifted. She was humbled when she realized that her industry could live without her.
Life is a journey, and she wanted to record hers. So, she sat down and wrote a book. She wasn’t trying to make millions by sharing her story. Instead, she wanted to help others. That’s when the real change happened.
Wise wrote about changing your relationship with money. Instead of viewing money as the objective, she dug into the meaning behind financial freedom. Now, she helps people reverse-engineer their relationship with money as a millionaire coach.
What Do You Actually Want?
It’s easy to fall into the trap of making more money for money’s sake. A solid income feels good. It makes you want more.
Although most people say they’d be happy with a generously padded bank account, they often fall into two camps. Some people never seem to have enough of it. Others devote themselves to earning and get caught up in the cycle of overachieving. They make money just to make it.
If you truly want to be financially fulfilled, the millionaire coach believes that you have to start by looking at your goals. Some questions to ask yourself include:
- How do you define a good life?
- What is meaningful to you?
- How much money can provide you with the lifestyle that you desire?
- What other assets are important to you?
One of the assets that Wise believes is essential to happiness is health. Investing in yourself should come before everything else. That’s why it’s so important to determine what you really want out of life before you focus on financial freedom. Once your reasoning is clear, you can create an effective, fulfilling plan for supporting your life goals.
Personal growth is important. But if you’re obsessed with growing your bank account, you might not be focusing on the other areas in which you can flourish. This one-sided mindset may help you support yourself financially, but it won’t bring you happiness.
Practical Tips for Empowering Yourself Financially
When will you have enough money to support your happiness? Answering the questions above can help you determine that. If you don’t know where you want to end up, how will you know when you have arrived?
Earning money aimlessly can throw you into a never-ending cycle of dissatisfaction. Wise refers to this as being “in the grind.” Living this way can lead to chronic stress and overwhelm. This mentality doesn’t support a healthy, fulfilling life, according to the millionaire coach.
Wise’s top tip for creating a healthy relationship with money is to work backward. Begin by asking yourself what your life would look like if you took your financial pursuits out of it. Take some time to contemplate what would truly make you happy.
Then it’s time to do some calculations. What kind of financial support do you need to achieve your desired lifestyle? Take your debt out of it. You just want to determine the monthly or yearly cost of living your desired life.
Ideally, Wise says that you should try to live without debt. If you do carry debt, calculate your monthly payments separately from your “desired lifestyle” budget.
After doing the math, you have your financial goals in front of you. This can be a huge relief for many people. Calculating your financial goals may help you realize that you don’t need to build a 30-million-dollar business. It allows you to get out of the grind and make daily, practical decisions that uphold your financial goals.
How to Achieve True Financial Freedom
Instead of working aimlessly to achieve more, you know when to stop. That stopping point gives you the freedom to do all of the other things that are important to you.
True financial freedom means that you get to make choices. You’re not driven by the survival-mode mechanism of forcing yourself to work so that you can pay the bills.
One of the best ways to get there is to focus on investing and building your assets. A passive income should be part of your financial plan. This should involve alternative investing strategies, such as real estate. When you love money, you begin to use it in a way that you love, too.
No matter how much money you make, life continues to deliver surprises. When you have developed a meaningful financial strategy, you can let go of your hold on money and focus on what really matters. That’s true financial freedom.
Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed in this blog post are provided for informational purposes only, and should not be construed as an offer to buy or sell any securities or to make or consider any investment or course of action.
