Financial Freedom – Why Your Money ‘WHY’ Matters

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Why do you want financial freedom? 

Why are you saving, paying off debt, investing, working towards a brighter financial future?

Your Why is your end goal. 

It has nothing to do with what the markets are doing or whether you’ll get a raise next month.

Your financial Why isn’t actually about money, it’s about what’s most important to you and how money can make that happen. 

Let’s take a look at why your money Why matters. 

Why you need a Why for money goals and financial freedom 

“Recognizing what really matters to you is the first step toward making financial decisions that are in sync with your values.” – Carl Richards

Having a rock-solid Why will help you achieve the big goal of financial freedom. All those smaller goals (like paying off debt and making regular investments) you’ll need to accomplish along the way to get there.

Your Why helps turn abstract hopes into concrete financial goals 

When you started this year, remember the new year’s money resolutions you made? Did you make them in your head or did you write them down? 

Now we’re in the tail end of the year, how much progress have you made? 

If you just thought about your money goal for this year but didn’t write it down and create a plan, I’m going to guess progress has been slow. If anything has happened at all. 

Writing out a compelling Why helps make that hope in your head something more concrete. 

Of course, you need to put a plan together and take action. However, writing your Why really is the start of turning your hope for financial freedom into reality. 

What is your biggest financial goal right now? 

Saving to buy a house, paying off debt, working towards financial freedom, retiring comfortably or creating a stable financial future for your family? 

You need to dig deep and nail down the strongest Why behind your goal then write it out in as much detail as possible. 

Which brings me to my next point….

Your Why gets you emotional

Sometimes, letting our emotions get the best of us is a GOOD thing. Really feeling pain or excitement about a situation can shake us up and push us forward.

Money goals and Whys injected with emotion make a potent combination for staying focused long term. 

Let’s take a look at 2 examples, Michelle and Carly’s financial freedom Whys –

Michelle says “I want to be financially free so I can live without money stress and retire with a comfortable lifestyle.”

Ok, so a great goal but I don’t think she’s dug deep enough into the why to make it quite as compelling and emotional as Carly’s….

Carly says “My number one financial goal is to become financially free. I want complete freedom over my time and not have to work in a job with a long commute and cranky boss. 

To spend more time with my kids and I want them to have the things I missed out on as a kid because my parents struggled with money. 

I want to be in control of my finances, not controlled by them! I want to feel peace of mind and security when I think of money.” 

See (feel!) the difference?

To really get to the heart of your Why, you need to go five levels deep. What that means, is you need to examine your why multiple times. When the first thing comes to you, ask why that is important to you, and do that for each why fives times. Normally on the fifth time you get to the true Why that has emotion and real meaning to you. 

Your Why makes ‘sacrifices’ easier

Reaching financial freedom doesn’t happen overnight and you’ll be met with many, many daily decisions to make along the way. 

Often these decisions will compete with reaching your goal of financial freedom. You will need to make the right trade-offs and ‘sacrifices’ to make sure you stay on track. 

Having your Why as an anchor will help make those decisions much easier to process. 

Let’s say a big part of your financial freedom Why is being able to spend less time at work and more time with your family. 

Then the time comes when you need to decide between buying a new or used car. The new car will be more expensive and you’ll need to work more hours to afford the repayments. 

Ask yourself, is it worth working more hours to pay for that new car, or would I rather spend that time with my family?  Your Why provides the answer. 

Your Why busts procrastination

“Procrastination is the bad habit of putting off until the day after tomorrow what should have been done the day before yesterday.”– Napoleon Hill

Ah, it’s SO easy to procrastinate when it comes to money stuff, isn’t it? Either it feels too hard, too big or too boring. 

When you’ve got a million different things going on (because, life) it’s easy to push dealing with your finances to the bottom of the list. 

You tell yourself you’ll get to it tomorrow, but tomorrow turns into never way too often.

The irony is when we’re in a financial situation that is squeezing us, so often we choose to stay the same and deal with the ‘known’ pain, instead of making a change. 

If you find yourself procrastinating about financial decisions and put off taking action, having a rock-solid Why will help move you forward. 

Your Why is a compelling reason to push through financial inertia and get moving! 

Read over your Why and imagine your life in 20 years (for better or for worse) and you’ll be motivated to take action now.

My “Why”

So you might be wondering what my why is…

It’s simple and complex at the same time. Obviously my why is my wife and two kids. Everything I do and seek to achieve is for them, so they can have choices, freedoms and life experiences beyond their wildest dreams, simple…

The complex part is that I want to change the money story of 1,000,000 people. I know that our education system is not designed to teach us how to manage money.,This results in a lot of money stress and struggle. So by teaching these skills, I believe I can change the world. I want to change the money story of families and therefore change the money outcomes of not just this generation, but those that follow, as the information is passed from parents to their children and so on. That’s the complex part.

What’s your money Why?

The next class of Investing Bootcamp opens soon. In the Investing Bootcamp course we delve into more detail about your Why and how it can be your money superpower. To get on the waitlist for the next class, click here.