Financial freedom: Achievable?

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They say "Money can buy anything", others may refer Money as a root of evil. 
How important is money in our everyday lives?
To buy your needs, you need money or else you will be left hungry and unable to support yourself and your family. Seeking a job is the main thing that you will think for you to earn an income, but is it really easy to find a job that can sustain your needs here in the Philippines?
As of the latest report of Philippine Statistics Authority, the employment rate in April 2019 was estimated at 94.9 percent. In April 2018, the employment rate was 94.5 percent. Imagine the increase of 0.4 percent, we have a lot of job opportunities in the country that can help us fight financial crisis. The rising of new businesses offers a lot of opportunity for unemployed people to attain financial freedom.
What is really financial freedom?
According to https://www.daveramsey.com/blog/what-is-financial-freedom, Financial freedom means that you get to make life decisions without being overly stressed about the financial impact because you are prepared. You control your finances instead of being controlled by them.
As a youth, I never thought about saving and investing my money for my future. What's important for me is to earn money and support my family and I. We are not a well off family so all of my income goes to the household and sometimes even not enough to cover my transportation and food expenses causing me to loan money from my co-workers and what's worse is lending money from financial institutions that offers big interest.
It made me sad to see that the interest from my loans can cover my future expenditures. If I could have used a budget system to track my income and expenses, I can easily manage my finances and can get out easily from financial crisis. Making loan is good but if we will not use it wisely, it will give us a burden that is difficult to resolve in the future
One of my friends gave me an advise about her budget plan and I can say that it helps me in managing my finances.
These are the things that you need to consider in creating a budget plan out of your salary:
  1. Know and understand the cycle and due dates of your bills - one important thing that you need to keep in mind is to pay your bills because if you pile all of your bills unpaid then it will worsen the situation in the future and you will worry where to get a huge amount of money to pay off your bill.
  2. Wake up early - the good thing about waking up early is that you'll be able to do productive things like preparing your own food and a chance to ride a jeepney which is cheaper compared to buses. Imagine, jeepney's fare is 13 PHP and the bus will cost you 40 PHP so you can save 27PHP which is more than half of the bus' fare. If you prepare your own food, you could give an assurance that what you are eating is clean and it can satisfy not only you but your whole family.
  3. Save at least 5 or 10 percent out of your salary - at first, saving is not an option for me but when I realized that I have a lot of things that I can do to lessen my expenses, I consider this as my friend specially during emergency cases. Opening a savings account requires minimum balance to maintain so I put my savings first to a safe box and when I reached the required amount to maintain a savings account then I opened a savings account and started depositing my extra money every payday.
  4. Minimize leisure activities - I know that as a young professional, we have the privilege to enjoy our youth by going out during free time, travel and eat in the restaurants but always remember not to go beyond your budget because spending beyond your means is a red flag and may result to you asking for a loan and gain big interests.

For now, these are things that I have been following to control my budget and I am confident that someday, I would be able to experience financial freedom by investing a portion of my savings for my future. It may be achievable depending on the circumstances but if there's a will, there's always a way.
Therefore, Money can buy anything but it is not a root of evil. It is an instrument for us to survive and it requires discipline for you to use it wisely and enjoy your future without worrying financial hardship.
Credits:
  • https://psa.gov.ph/statistics/survey/labor-and-employment/labor-force-survey
  • https://www.daveramsey.com/blog/what-is-financial-freedom

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