If you hate your job and crave a life of freedom, start by building an income outside of your salary. You’re probably thinking, “What?? I’m already frazzled every day, how can I do more?” I know, I get it, I was there! It does take effort and it is hard, but it’s not forever. It’s a short-term push to live the rest of your life on your terms, enjoying the freedom you have always craved.
Having walked the journey ahead of you from ‘lawyer to lifestyle™’, I can offer you some tips to accelerate the journey:
1. Initially strip back your living expenses
If you are looking to build an income outside of your main salary to eventually either reduce to part-time working or to leave the job altogether, you will achieve it much quicker if the amount you need to build is as low as possible.
This means, when calculating what the figure is that you ‘need’ (note need not want – want comes later), the lower you can get this, the easier and quicker it is to reach.
To this end, if you can reduce your living costs down to an absolute minimum in the short term you can achieve your freedom a lot quicker. It stands to reason that if you need to build an income of £10,000 per month, it will likely take longer than getting to £3,000 per month. So, strip it back to basics and cancel everything else. It’s not forever!
When I was in that position, I went through all my expenses and got rid of all expenses I didn’t need – I got rid of magazine subscriptions I could read online, I reduced the TV package down to the most basic etc. It’s very liberating to discover how much is ‘wasted’ as it’s not really utilised and how little you really need
Remember this is part of an overall plan. It’s not forever. You can always build those luxuries back in as your income grows if you choose to. Truthfully, I never really did. I got so used to spending less I didn’t really miss most of the things I had given up. Also, by keeping my spending at that level, as my income continued to increase, I had even more to invest, and I grew my businesses even quicker.
2. Deferred gratification
In line with, and following on from the point above, be prepared to make some real impactful short-term sacrifices to live the rest of your life on your terms.
I had started to build my ‘escape’ income around my busy job as a lawyer. I had a clear ‘5-year plan’ which involved me initially building enough income to go part-time to then free up a couple of days to work on my business and then leave altogether.
However, life didn’t work that way because going down to 3 days a week in my role wasn’t an option due to workloads. At the same time, my relationship with someone at work had broken down so I felt like the ‘universe’ was pushing me to take a leap of faith! I took the plunge earlier than planned and left before I had built up enough income to live on (not the recommended way but it’s what I did!). I, therefore, had to build my income pretty quickly – certainly pretty motivating!
You might set your plan over a longer period which may feel more manageable and not require such drastic action as I took. Either way, you will still need to put in effort and make short term changes to achieve your longer-term life goals.
Having left, I was determined not to have to go back to practice out of necessity, and this was a real motivator for me to do everything I could to build an income as quickly as possible to sustain me independently of a job! I wanted a life of freedom so badly that I was prepared to do whatever it took!
I made a plan and executed it. I made sacrifices. Following the breakdown of my relationship I moved from a 4-bedroom detached house to a one bed apartment, to keep my living expenses as low as possible. Now, I get that if you have a family such a drastic move as that may not be possible, but there will be some things you can reduce or eliminate. The partner I was separating from bought me out of our detached home which gave me additional money to invest in my ‘freedom plan’. I could have gone out and bought another big house with that money which would have been a financial stretch, but I chose instead to compromise on my living arrangements in the short term to execute my journey to freedom even quicker.
My journey was unique to me – your journey will be unique to your needs, desires, and drivers. For example, if one of your goals is to feel less ‘frazzled’ and experience more of the things that nourish your soul and you are happy to ‘cut your cloth’ to have it, you may not even need to build an alternative or additional income. You may be able to achieve this by simply going part-time (if this is an option) and enjoying a day or two a week embracing all the things you enjoy doing. Sometimes, working a 3- or 4-day week can be enough to reduce some of the feeling of monotony, and break the ‘stress cycle’. If this is the case, think about how you could live on 3/5ths or 4/5ths of your income by reducing your outgoings to that level. This can be especially empowering for people who desire to spend those ‘free days’ doing fairly low-cost things, such as hiking, catching up with family, a day in the park with children (or grandchildren), gardening, music, painting, photography etc.
Note that I talk about being driven by a deep desire for freedom throughout the example of my own journey. However, freedom may not be your biggest driver and it is essential that you work out your own values, drivers and deepest desires/needs before you begin your plan. For more on this return to Chapter 2: What drives you?
3. Move your money up the tree
As much as you can, once you have disposed of the unnecessary or wasteful spending, try and maintain that level of spending even as your income builds. That way you can move your money ‘up the tree’. If you look at the image of the tree, income comes in at the bottom and the idea is to move it up the tree to the top which represents safe assets and investments. This is where real financial security (wealth) and true freedom lives.
Once you have your base living expenses covered, as you continue to build your income, you can choose how you balance building back in some of those luxuries that are important to you (and which you sacrificed along the way), with investing any surplus into longer-term investments.
The investments you decide upon will be determined by your financial goals, time scale, age, and financial position amongst other considerations. Get expert advice if you are not confident. I predominantly invested in property because it gave me an additional recurring income as well as an asset base. As well as being a life coach and business mentor, I have been a property coach for many years. If you are drawn towards building a property portfolio, I can help you with that through my coaching and mentoring services. Just book a free 1-2-1 discovery call with me to explore this further (jackie@lawyertolifestyle.com).
Summary
Stage 1 is to cover your living expenses.
If you want to replace your salary and leave your job then it’s obvious that the lower your monthly living expenses are, the quicker and easier it will be to replace them through your own business or investments. Think about what you are prepared to sacrifice short-term to have the life of your dreams long-term.
Here’s the magic: you might find that it doesn’t feel like a sacrifice. Instead, it can become deeply rewarding and quite liberating!
When I was in practice and unhappy in my job, I frequently used to buy shoes, clothes, and jewellery that I didn’t need, just to try and cheer myself up. However, it was short-lived because it didn’t change the underlying reason for my misery. As soon as I changed that, the urge to spend disappeared almost overnight and I got a much better buzz from watching my portfolios grow and from squirrelling away surplus income than I’d ever got from impulse spending. The more I stepped into my life of freedom, the less compulsion I had to spend on these things.
I choose carefully how I direct my money. I ensure that when I do spend, it’s quite strategic and is mostly on things that bring me deeper fulfilment and lasting pleasure or benefit. For example, I pay for regular deep massages and reflexology sessions every few weeks which I find intensely relaxing as well as physically and spiritually nourishing. I have a cleaner at my house because I value my time and don’t enjoy cleaning. So even though I gave up some of these pleasures short-term whilst building my replacement income, I reinstated them as soon as I could comfortably afford to do so because they are important to me.
Stage 2 is to build real wealth.
Once you have enough income to live comfortably, you can focus on building real wealth.
If you have very little surplus, you can start small, but the key is to start.
To build long-term wealth a consistent, well-thought-out plan executed over time will reap great rewards, but you have to be disciplined. If you’re not, set up a standing order for whatever you can afford at the beginning of each month into your chosen savings account to get it out of temptation’s way. Even if it’s only £10 a month it will get you in the habit.
I have never changed this plan and have been executing it for over a decade. I continue to shave off surplus every month and use it in my investment plan.
If you would like me to work with you to help you create a freedom and wealth plan, book a 1-2-1 confidential call via jackie@lawyertolifestyle.com.
I’d be happy to help you.