Hi, I’m Kelly, I’m 48 and debt free.
What does financial freedom mean to me?
Well, it’s nothing to do with being rich or flashy.
It means not being beholden to anyone. It means feeling free to make sensible financial decisions for my family. It means being in a position to help others who are less fortunate. It means feeling in control of my financial future.
It means feeling very, very blessed.
I spent the first few years of my young adulthood wondering what on earth I was supposed to be doing. I started a degree and dropped out. I worked a variety of low paying jobs with long hours in order to pay my rent, run my car and eat!
Although I did complete an “at home” small business course (pre-internet days) I really had no idea what my own business would look like or how I could do it.
I got married and had my 4 children when I was in my 20s and early 30s.
When I was almost 30 my husband and I had scraped together enough money for a home deposit. We both worked full time and made many sacrifices in order to save. In 2005 property prices were much lower than they are now so with a deposit of around $100,000 we were able to purchase our first home with a $100,000 mortgage.
It seems like a very manageable amount all these years later, but at that time the struggle was real. As our family grew we made the decision that I would stay home to homeschool our children.
My husband’s wage from his full time job was modest to say the least.
But 10 years later, we paid off that mortgage. Yes, on one wage and with 4 children to clothe and feed.
6 years later we had another mortgage. We had a dream. We wanted to leave the suburban lifestyle we had grown to detest. My husband and I had both lived rurally on farms as children. We wanted that lifestyle again for our family.
In 2016 I started an online business in the hobby/education/design space. Over time this business grew enough for my husband to retire from his job and work at home with me. The business continued to grow so that in 2021 we achieved our dream of obtaining acreage in a beautiful rural location.
Within 3.5 years of our move we had again paid off our mortgage and were completely debt free.
Having lived below the poverty line to now being financially comfortable, I have a lot of helpful financial information to share.
Regardless of where you are at in life – stay at home parent, single, married, empty nester, you will find help and ideas here to work towards financial freedom.
