3 Ways To Reclaim Your Time
And live your dream life.
The buzz word has been financial independence for I don’t know how long. What we truly desire is the freedom to do what we want, when we want , and with who we want.
As for me, I desire to be a rich haute housewife living a leisure, luxury, lavish lifestyle with an full-time staff in 4 estates around the world in order to reclaim my time.
It’s not as outlandish as it sounds.
Well, how did a child of a domestic worker get the idea that it’s possible to be rich and live a leisure, luxury, lavish lifestyle with full-time staff at that?
For one, living in a prestigious neighborhood called Buckhead in Atlanta, GA for 6 years where I often crossed paths with Buckhead Betties. Buckhead Betties are rich housewives, prioritizing their well-being by taking Pilates, hang out at Phipps Plaza & Lenox Mall (luxury malls) for brunch and shopping at Wholefoods.
Secondly, living in Dubai for 2 years (and the country for 4 years) where I witnessed rich Emirate women being driven around town by their drivers and accompanied by their house girls (i.e. maid or nanny) while they are out shopping or during family outings.
Last but not least, while spending a 3-month holiday in Ghana observing my rich uncle-in-law house up and operating (i.e. house cleaned, meals prepared, laundry done, etc.) before he even wakes up for his morning workout.
It’s interesting each of these people have reclaimed their time by leveraging other people.
Ultimately, I believe with God all things are possible.
My favorite all-time scripture is Proverbs 10:22
“The Blessing of the Lord will make you rich without painful toil.”
I’m intentional and serious about reclaiming my time as a housewife living a leisure, lavish, luxury lifestyle.
So intentional that I took it upon myself to dedicate May to August to level up my wealth consciousness by reading 12 books on personal finance.
I just ordered book # 10 — Millionaire Fastlane by DJ DeMarco. Get the reading list here.
These books are confirming that I can live a rich life without toil or work.
Book #7 Your Money or Your Life | 9 Steps To Transforming Your Relationship With Money & Achieving Financial Independence by Vicki Robin & Joe Dominguez
Vicki Robins explains why reclaiming your time is possible. She introduces the term “life energy (i.e. your time)” and explains the urgency in reclaiming it.
Money is something you trade life energy (i.e. time) for. The term is genius. Vicki explains that your hourly pay is really not your real hourly pay because you have to subtract all your job-related expenses (i.e. commuting, work attire, meals, daily decompression — talking about your job after work, escape entertainment, vacations, job-related illnesses, etc.). You are using up your life energy and incurring expenses to maintain a lifestyle in line with the job. Ultimately, if you get rid of the job, you can get rid of the expenses, gain time, and enjoy doing more things you love to do.
Mark H., a project manager in the construction industry, discovered a new approach to life. He states in the book:
“After I analyzed our spending patterns, it became clear that nearly half of what I made was spent on the job; that is, spent on gas, oil, repairs, lunches, a little here, a little there, and most of it unrecoverable. In short, I could stay at home, work part-time where I live, and actually save money by making half of what I formerly made.”
Vicki also recommends if you didn’t have to work, you could cook, clean, do repairs and other things around the house.
God forbid unless you enjoy doing those things.
To each his own.
In the words of Bishop T. D. Jakes, eat the meat and spit out the bones.
Book # 8 Quit Like A Millionaire, No Gimmicks, Luck, or Trust Fund required by Kristy Shen & Bryce Leung
A true inspiration, Kristy Shen grew up in abject poverty in China searching through a medical waste dump for toys. She became a millionaire at 31, quit her job to travel the world and write professionally.
Kristy cracked the code to reclaiming your time by focusing on retirement. Even though she had three more decades to reach retirement age. She invested her money in order to generate income. Enough income to cover her and her beau annual living expenses.
She proved that you can reclaim your life energy/time and live an even better life by participating in geographic arbitrage. Instead of staying in one place, they took advantage of the lower cost of living in different parts of the world.
The first year abroad between her and her beau they spent $40,000 (the same they would have spent living in one place and working their 9-to-5 jobs) while visiting 20 different countries. They discovered tax loop holes, investment strategies, and credit card hacks to make it all possible.
“The lie we’ve been told is that traveling is expensive. But by splitting the year between expensive regions and inexpensive regions, our daily costs averaged only $42 per person per day. We stayed in Airbnbs and hotels, sometimes going out to eat, sometimes cooking. We even managed to sneak in splurges like fresh oysters and lobsters in Boston, a four-day scuba-diving certification course in Thailand, scuba diving in Cambodia, hiking in the Swiss Alps, and Kobe beef in Japan.”
She explains her way is just one way and there are multiple ways to become a millionaire.
On top of that, she assures those without six-figure salaries or a million dollars in an investment portfolio that this life of leisure is still possible.
And with sideFIRE (i.e. side hustle), PartialFI (i.e. part-time gig), and geographic arbitrage, you don’t have to wait 15 to 30 years to live this life.
Book #9 How Rich People Think by Steve Siebold
Steve Siebold states reclaiming your time has a lot to do with overcoming your limiting beliefs.
Chapter 34 title is “Middle class believes they aren’t worthy of great wealth…World class believes they deserve to be rich.”
Middle class: “Who am I, they ask themselves, to become a millionaire? Who am I to get what I really want? Who am I to live a lifestyle fit for a king?”
World class: “Why not me? I’m as good as anyone else and I deserve to be rich. If I serve others by solving problems , why shouldn’t I be rewarded with a fortune.”
“And since they have this belief, their behaviors moves them toward the manifestation of their dreams.”
He goes on to say:
“..the world class continues moving closer to the level of prosperity they have convinced themselves they deserve.”
Therefore,
“..people of average intelligence build fortunes through their beliefs, positive expectations, and focus.”
He advises to “base your belief on the result you want to accomplish.”
What I love about these book and every personal finance book I’m reading is these authors had a plan.
They worked their plan until they manifested their financial freedom.
For Vicki it was identifying life energy (time) zappers.
Kristy chose to use her retirement portfolio even though she was no where near retirement age.
Steve searched out millionaires and exposed limiting beliefs of the middle class and adopted the abundance beliefs of the wealthy.
Reading these books are helping me know myself and heal myself by overcoming my own limiting beliefs.
Every day I’m using my thoughts to imagine my dream life and implement a plan to reclaim my time as a rich haute housewife living a leisure, luxury, lavish lifestyle with full-time staff in four estates around the world.
How will you reclaim your time?
One way is YOU can stress less & live MORE!
In 2020, my stress score was 446. According to the Holmes-Rahe statistical prediction model, 300 points or more constitutes an 80% chance of health breakdown in the next two years.
I took the test and changed my story.
You Can Too!
Take the test for yourself here.
