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Archive for June, 2015

Gratitude...

June 15th, 2015 at 07:16 pm

Found myself looking today at all the reasons for feeling grateful..
A new colleague of mine at work, shared with me that a few months ago she had to leave her home taking her 2 children with nothing but a suitcase! She "ran away" in the middle of the night to get away from her abusive husband with only the promise of a safe bed for her and her children.
Imagine, the despair and how frightened she must have been. Well, she made it to our city and because she has a brilliant attitude has managed to get shifts as a nurse BUT someone told her husband where she was. Sadly, he arrived and beat her and has taken the 1 child and no-one knows where they are.
Not only has my colleague continued to work but her faith that God will provide and keep them all safe prevailed. She arrives at work with warmth and smiles for everyone.
So while we work ourselves out of debt and save like crazy for whatever, I find myself thinking of her and what she would say. I think it would go along the lines of "be grateful for what you have, tomorrow it may be gone..."
Tonight as I get into bed, I wont be thinking about my retirement, I will be thinking of her and praying that she gets her daughter back and that they are able to free themselves from this terrible curse.

New goals and challenges ahead...

June 14th, 2015 at 08:19 pm

only 20 days debt free and I still haven't fully realized what I have achieved. So today I sat down and started reading some of the blogs and quickly realized it was time to get focused again.

The first thing I noticed, is how focused everyone is on retirement and secondly how this forum helps cheer you on to reach goals that you never thought you would reach. ever!

So here I am now 53 years with only 12 years to go before I retire and very short on retirement savings. So my key focus has to be retirement savings at all costs with security for an emergency and enough money to get my daughter started at college. She will have to work for a grant or bursary after this money is finished or self-fund but that is the way it is.

I have just put her into an international school so that she can improve her opportunities for studying overseas on a scholarship and that is where I have spent the education fund mostly. So far it has been a great decision.

I am now in my 3rd year of my post graduate degree so next year I will be finished. That money will be put back into saving for my retirement funding.

I don't want to be one the nurses who are still having to work at 70 because they didn't have enough saved.

By the way I left my debt balances up in my panel as a reminder to me of how far I have come and also to encourage others that they too can get there.

Oh well that's about it for now... keep dreaming of the promise of financial freedom... its nearly here for all of us!!!

It's done... all done...

June 2nd, 2015 at 07:08 pm

The day has arrived - WE ARE DEBT FREE!!!!!

And I still don't believe it, cant believe it and don't know how to really process it. My whole life I have had DEBT, never in all my working life have I been debt free.

Its taken over 9 years of challenge, dealing with a gambling addiction, closing a business, selling my home and going back to the full-time employment AND here I am, still ok.

If someone had told me it would be possible, I would never have believed them. Now that it is done, I don't know how I did it.

Could it have happened quicker? Absolutely, but I was learning life lessons along the way and re-establishing values.

Could I have done it on my own? Never! So many people have given me encouragement, assistance and courage when times were really tough, celebrated the successes and cheered for the progress.

And now... it feels so strange.

But I am so grateful that I had the opportunity to celebrate this day and that the experience has made me a better person.

So once again, I live my life "one day at a time"....
and think about setting new goals.