The Number One Thing You Need to Go From Barely Getting By, To Financially Free

A few years ago, we were emerging from a very financially challenging period, and it was exciting! A little bit of money was growing in my bank account. We were finally making more than we were spending – just a little, but it was the right direction!

My thought was that “anybody really can get financially ahead” because I felt that, with my limited education and no innate talent, I could make enough money to save. 

In my enthusiasm, I wanted to share what I’d learned with anyone I talked to about finances – especially if that person was frustrated with their financial situation.

…And it got me in a lot of trouble. 

Not everyone wants to hear about how they can improve their situation. 

Some people, whether they realize it or not, want to be rescued. 

There’s a little bit of that in all of us, though, isn’t there? Or at least I’ve certainly caught myself thinking about “what if” windfalls. Let’s face it, being rescued is a whole lot less work than rescuing yourself, so it’s an attractive idea!

But that doesn’t help you. At all.

The number one thing you need to get ahead financially? 

It’s not a job, or pay level, or better circumstances. 

It’s an iron will

It’s the will to do the work. The will to find a way. 

It’s being open to growing, doing, and being different than who you are right now. 

When someone says, “If you want to save money on groceries, eat more beans”, instead of saying “nope, I don’t like beans”, it’s saying, “Okay, how am I going to do that?” 

(and btw, I’m not necessarily recommending eating beans every day, though dry beans are cheap, it’s just an example.)

The bottom line is, you decide whether there’s money at the end of the month and not the other way around. 

It’s you being willing to learn what you need to know to do what it takes to make it that way. 

One example I can give from personal experience was my husband figuring out how to get free produce from our local store. 

Every morning, the produce manager gathers all the bruised, expired, and otherwise unfit produce into a box to dispose of in the dumpster. Gabe asked her to set it aside for him to pick up every morning to compost instead. 

We quickly realized that there was a lot of usable produce in those boxes! (and also learned that we’d shot ourselves in the foot by designating produce instead of all discards – you should see some of the things we see in the dumpster sometimes!). 

We ate a lot of produce varieties we wouldn’t have chosen to eat otherwise, but our grocery bill that way helped us get ahead. 

Now obviously, something like that isn’t a dependable or long-term solution, which brings up something else important. 

You need to know how to manage the money you save. 

It’s not a great trade if you’re eating your least favorite vegetable just because it’s free and turned around only to spend that money on chocolate. 

Saving in itself only gets you so far. 

You’ve got to have a plan for that money – specifically a plan for that saved money, making you more money. 

Saving up for a car is a great idea. Everybody needs a car. But once you spend that saved money, it’s gone, and you have to start from scratch again. Unless you’re using that car to drive for Uber, you didn’t really “get ahead”. 

Your all-important will has to go beyond simply finding ways to save up money here and there. 

You have to have a plan to invest it into something that returns money to you. Whether that’s in the stock market, or into building a new, better-paying business so that you can forget about eating the cheapest beans you can find.  

You don’t need a detailed plan to start saving toward something better, and even if you do, you’ll likely find that you need to adjust and rework it several times on your way to achieving your goal. 

You have to have the will to find a way to save and multiply your money.  

I sure didn’t have a well-thought-out plan when I started. I just knew I didn’t want to live the rest of my life hoping finances didn’t go south again, and that I’d still be able to pay the light bill when I’m 80. 

It was only after we started saving and growing a “nest egg” that we began to solidify what we wanted to do to make it work for us – to keep on growing and earning more for our retirement years. 

We still talk it over frequently and adjust our plans based on new information. 

So you don’t have to have all the information when you start saving. My point is simply that saving up for a one-time purchase isn’t necessarily beneficial to your long-term financial life. 

Have a plan to make the money you save work for you toward a better financial future (example: stock market or real estate investing) – or at least have a plan to make a plan. 

But whatever you’re doing, don’t let anyone talk you out of this one fact: The one thing you need to go from barely getting by to financially free is an iron will.