Nobody Earns or Saves Their Way To Freedom
I’ve always been a saver. Because deep down, I couldn’t ever see myself working the 9-5 grind until retirement age… so I figured I’d better have a decent financial buffer to support me when the time came to leave my corporate career and do something different.
I also knew that, if I wanted to create the freedom & quality of life I craved without working full time – for the rest of my life – I had to find a new way of thinking about money.
During the 13 years of working in my corporate IT job, I earned a decent salary and lived a relatively frugal life, so I managed to build up a decent nest egg.
Then in December 2018, the time came for me to quit my job and seek out a new path…
A few months later, I found the SFM and got introduced to online business, and specifically affiliate marketing.
The promises of “work from anywhere & earn uncapped income without having to work more than a few hours a day” sounded perfect!
It was everything I was looking for – the answer to my prayers…
Unrealistic Expectations
But by June 2020, I was almost broke.
I had been out of work for 18 months by then, living off my savings while trying to get my affiliate business off the ground.
And having spent $35,000 on my online business training & coaching – which was over half my capital – plus an extra $4k on paid ads for my fledgling affiliate business… and earned a grand total of $900 in affiliate commissions… I think it’s safe to say I hadn’t yet had the success I had hoped for.
Watching my savings drip away, with next-to-nothing coming in, created huge anxiety for me.
I was running out of time… and that wasn’t a great headspace to be in while trying to get a business off the ground.
So when I heard about Ann Wilson’s free World of Wealth Workshop, I signed up, hoping to find inspiration that would help me out of this hole I’d got myself in.
Enter the World of Wealth
After watching Ann’s free workshops in June 2020, I saw a way forward.
Not just out of the financial hole I’d got myself in, but even better – a vision that went way beyond what my affiliate marketing business could ever give me.
A plan that meant, if I built up enough in assets, I might not actually have to work at all!
Now, that’s true freedom! Yes please, I want me some of that!
That was a plan I liked the sound of… and at that stage, I desperately needed a new plan to keep my dreams alive.
.But… I didn’t have the cash to invest in her Financial Freedom University (FFU) program at that time.
Even though maybe joining FFU would have given me the knowledge I needed to get myself out of my current money trap, I knew Ann’s Wealthy Way process was a long term strategy… and wouldn’t solve my short term cash flow issue.
My priority needed to be getting financially stable – by getting at least some money coming in, and getting to a break-even money flow.
.Besides, I figured, there wasn’t much point learning how to invest money I didn’t have…!
Plus, I figured I already was a “Wealthy Spender” as I’d already cut my expenses down to the bare bones, to eke out my savings.
So I didn’t sign up for FFU.
Wealth Killer #1: The Lone Ranger
Instead, I carried on as I was, still heavily involved in affiliate marketing… meanwhile doing what I could with what I’d learned in the World of Wealth Workshops.
This is what Ann calls the “Lone Ranger” Wealth Killer… the “I don’t need to pay money for this, I can figure it out myself” voice, which is actually saying “I don’t want anyone else to see my mess”
I was renting out the flat I used to live in before I went to sea, and through what Ann taught me, I realised I wasn’t make the most of it. So I moved it from a repayment to an interest only mortgage, and that gave me an extra £600 income a month – which helped a great deal & bought me more time.
Funny that, until the, I hadn’t considered that as a source of income…
I was programmed to only see actively-earned income as income – because, you’ve got to work hard in life, right? Money only counts if you earn it, right? Wrong! That’s just a story we’re taught to stop us being lazy good-for-nothing layabouts…
Then, in September 2020, I got my first gig as a freelance marketing consultant… and started to bring some money in.
Wealth Killer #3: “When… Then…”
In October 2020, Ann launched her Passive Investor Bootcamp program. This is an intensive 3-day program designed to help people get their investment portfolio in place & start their regular investing habit to build up assets.
I was tempted, as I wanted to learn more from Ann, particularly around investing as that’s the bit I knew I definitely needed help with.
But I still couldn’t afford it. Is what I told myself.
Although I had started to earn a little money by now, I still wasn’t covering my living costs and was using the last of my savings plus rental income to keep myself going (debt is not something I was willing to contemplate!).
“When I’m earning enough, then I’ll be able to afford it…” is the conversation that happened inside my head.
Can you spot another of the Wealth Killers that Ann talks about? Yup, the “When… then… ” monster! “WHEN I’m out of debt/earning enough/I’ve got more time… THEN I’ll. do the thing that will get me out of debt/earn more/free up my time”! Sound familiar??!
However, I did tell my friend Fiona about it. Fiona worked for a global software company and was having a crap time of it, because they were cutting lots of jobs as a result of the pandemic. She was hating the politics & stress of corporate at that point and looking for a way out… so when I told her about Ann and this bootcamp, she signed up.
As a result of what she learned in that weekend, she negotiated a huge redundancy pay-out and got out of her corporate job with a very nice lump sum that she could easily live off for a year. She made changes to her day-to-day living expenses to maximise the amount of time she & her 8-year-old son could live off the lump sum, and followed Ann’s advice on how to invest some of it. Then she started a low-input business selling products on Amazon.
I watched on, wishing like crazy I’d joined her on that bootcamp. So when Ann announced another bootcamp in April 2021 I jumped on it.
Houston, We Have Lift Off!
Action stations! I cleared my schedule and threw myself into the Bootcamp… that was an intensive 3 days!
By the end of that weekend, I had calculated my Freedom Number, calculated my current Net Worth, got my online brokerage account set up, applied for my disparate company pensions to be transferred in to my new Self-Invested Personal Pension account, and moved my Stocks & Shares ISA onto the brokerage platform.
Meaning: I’d taken control of my assets.
Liberated them from the people & platforms that were doing a mediocre job of looking after them.
Finally, I felt I’d started my wealth-building journey…
Within a month of that bootcamp, once all my funds had been successfully transferred in, I had set up all my index trackers, as well as investments in as many of the asset classes Ann recommended as I could, plus my regular monthly payment set up.
I was on my way…
Building My Wealthy Eco-System
Hungry for more, I started dipping into the FFU modules (which I got as a bonus for signing up to the Bootcamp) to find out what else I needed to do.
Working through the Prepare module, I switched my current account (to get a switching bonus), re-negotiated my broadband contract to reduce my monthly spend, separated my personal & business finances (boy, I wish I’d done that sooner! Unpicking it took ages…) and set up my monthly spend tracker to keep an eye on what was going out each month.
I was starting to learn what it really meant to be a “Wealth Spender”.
After all, the quality of our life is determined not by how much money we earn, but by how we spend our money. I started to become more conscious about where my money was going, and to really question if I was spending it on things that I actually valued… or felt I should.
Crypto Wobble
It was now May 2021 and crypto was all the rage at this time.
Many of my online business friends were getting involved in various Crypto trading schemes, and the word on the street was that all the Cool Kids were into Bitcoin.
Wary of the hype, I decided I needed to get some education first, so I studied Ann’s Crypto Boom-riders course and then had a dabble in Crypto trading & investing.
Sadly I happened to get in at the top of the market, and within a week the crypto market crashed… and the value of my coins dropped to 25% of what I’d put in.
I was so glad I’d followed Ann’s advice and put around 1% of my Net Worth in it so I didn’t lose too much, but learned a valuable lesson about investing in speculative assets.
And decided that I didn’t want to give Crypto much of my time, attention or money at this point, so moved on.
Cooking Up My Wealth Pie
I then found the “Wealth Pie” module in FFU and started to implement her wealth distribution strategy, both in my business & personal accounts. This has probably had the biggest impact on my day-to-day life.
Putting money into a Cash Safety Net covers me when I have months where I want to take holiday or take time out to do some studying or non-income-generating business activities. This helps me manage my variable cash flow & massively reduces my anxiety around being self-employed because I have a safety net in case I get sick or can’t work for a while.
This also saved me when I got my self-assessment tax bill in last July… and got rather a shock! 2021-22 was the first year I actually earned enough to have the privilege of paying Income Tax. But being a newbie to self-employment (and refusing to pay an accountant when I felt I could do this myself), I wasn’t expecting to have to pay this year’s tax bill AND half of next year’s in advance at the same time!
Thankfully, because of Wealth Pie I had made a provision for this year’s tax bill… and because I actively manage my finances as Ann teaches, and submitted my Tax Return way earlier than I used to, I still had 6 months to save up to pay the half of next year’s tax bill. Phew! Crisis averted.
The Save To Spend pot helped me save up to buy a new iPhone through my business. Sadly, it was stolen just weeks after I bought it, so I used the rest of the Savings pot – that I’d been saving to replace my laptop – to buy a second new iPhone. Although I regret losing my brand new iPhone (my fault for leaving it on the table in a café in London, while I went to the toilet… even though my friend Alex was sat at the table when it was swiped). I felt grateful I had the cash to be able to do this.
Putting money into a Growth pot has meant that, when new courses come up that I think will help me grow my active or residual income, I can afford to pay upfront for them, therefore taking advantage of pay-in-full prices which are typically cheaper than instalment plans. I’ve done two online business courses in the last 6 months, both have helped increase my skills & therefore value – and since I am my business, that’s a pretty solid investment I think!
Putting money into a Charity pot meant I could make a healthy donation to a local charity last year, which felt great! As Ann said, this is important because it tells my subconscious that I have “enough” that I can spare some to help others.
And making sure I spend the money in my Play pot each month (which I find hard, as it feels like a selfish luxury) makes sure that I’m living my best life NOW, as well as taking care of my future. Without too much guilt (I’m working on that 😉 )
Keeping the Momentum Going
When Ann created her Wealth Builder Club membership in 2022, I jumped on the opportunity to get ongoing support and access to monthly Q&A sessions.
I love the quarterly Get Shit Done weeks, and always use them as the time when I review my Balance Sheet and take a deep dive into my money stuff.
It also keeps me in touch with Ann & the Wealth Builder Community, and provides the accountability & motivation to keep going & keep growing.
Who you surround yourself with is key, and having clean money conversations in the Wealth Builder community is sooo valuable.
It’s Working – My Net Worth Is Growing
Keeping track of my Net Worth is motivating, and I love seeing it grow.
Since the Passive Investor Bootcamp in April 2021, I have grown my Net Worth by 18% (it’s now January 2023) – which I think is awesome, especially for a newbie!
And I’ve made my fair share of mistakes along the way too – which I’m happy to be learning early on, while my wealth is still relatively small! But nothing too drastic fortunately.
In the last 12 months alone, we’ve had to deal with the war in Ukraine & consequent spike in gas prices leading to huge inflation, plus volatility in the UK thanks to the UK Government’s disastrous “mini-budget” of Autumn 2022, to name a few of the post-pandemic era economic challenges.
Overall, my portfolio has grown 12% in the last 12 months, which I’m super-happy with considering the volatile economic situation.
I’ve really witnessed first-hand the power of Ann’s portfolio design as some asset classes, such as Equities & Cryptos, have fallen sharply while other asset classes have risen in value, such as Real Estate, Precious Metals & Commodities. But they have balanced each other out, and overall my portfolio has still grown.
Which fills me with confidence that Ann’s system works – if you follow it!
Playing the Long Game
I appreciate that this is a long-term game.
At my current rate, if I maintain my current monthly contributions & continue to grow at 12% per year, I’ll be able to retire at age 59 – that’s in 16 year’s time.
And if I upped that to 15% annual growth, I’d knock 3 years off that and be financially free at 56.
I know that 15% year-on-year growth (and more) is achievable if I focused time & attention on it, and added a few extra strategies to my plan.
But I’m not in a hurry… I’m happy to be making steady progress, without having to work too hard – and being able to enjoy the freedom I have in my life right now.
Because that’s the whole point of doing this, after all – to life live fully, NOW!
It’s all about the journey, and not the destination.
All in all, the knowledge & skills I’ve gained from Ann’s teachings give me confidence, peace of mind, control – and choice.
Financial Freedom is a great goal, and I may not be there yet… but those are priceless to me.
And that’s enough for me.
Digital Entrepreneur & Wealth Creator
Creator of Modern Wealthy Lifestyle
Ambassador for Financial Freedom University
