When you think of RICH does the image of money and wealth immediately spring to mind? For most people it does, but did you know that the dictionary has many definitions of the word RICH and only one has to do with actual money.
However, by following these 3 simple rules, you can become financially rich.
Rule Number 1: Do Not Live Above Your Means. I think everybody knows their income should be higher than their spending to be able to achieve financial stability. Certainly, my philosophy of making my cash work hard for me has been the cornerstone of creating my “Sunshine Cash” lifestyle
Rule 2: Save Up and Invest Again the common thinking is to save the balance between your income and outgoings and invest to create further income. Planning income for your future self is a wise decision if you do not to be still working 9-5 well into your 80’s.
Rule 3: Improve on Rules 1 & 2. It is easy to plan and budget your expenses. The issue comes in the practice. So many have the greatest intentions only to slip back to bad habits in a month or two. It is VITALLY important to keep checking in with yourself and keep yourself on track to achieve your long term goals.
Rule 4: Do Not Apply These Rules to Just Your Money. To have a truly RICH life, every area of life needs to follow the first 2 rules. Let’s see how this can be applied to the 8 life areas..
Life Area
Rule 1:
“Do Not Live Above Your Means”
Rule 2:
“Save Up and Invest”
Financial Wealth
Spend less than you Earn
Save and Invest the left over money after expenses
Home and Environment
Have a home that suits your lifestyle
Maintain your home to keep it in good condition.
Family & Friends
Have hundreds of “Friends”
Nurture and protect true friendships that see you through thick and thin.
Romance / Partner
Be too busy to give your partner time. Taking them for granted
Taking time to connect on a personal level often to keep the spark alive.
Health & Wellbeing
Overeat and don’t exercise
Have regular check-ups with health professionals.
Career & Business
Jumping from one job to the next often.
Creating a long term career that creates job satisfaction.
Personal Growth
Being constantly stressed and busy
Allowing some “Me Time” to create balance and unwind.
Fun & Recreation
Being constantly stressed and busy
Finding time to have fun, engage in a hobby or just relax with friends
Take some time and consider how can you apply the 2 rules to your life in all areas.
One of my less than perfect items was our dinner set. It was a cheap set bought from Kmart and it has worn terribly.
In my perfect world, I would be eating off fine bone china every meal. So why don’t I?
Well, my BS excuses are around that the “Good dinner set is only for special occasions”. “Good china can’t go in the dishwasher” Good china will chip easily” and that “Good china is very expensive”
My mother’s “good china” is a Noritake set she received as a wedding present over 50 years ago. It gets used maybe once or twice a year. I decided I wanted Noritake as my everyday dinner set. A quick look on Facebook showed a lovely 6 place full setting in a nearby suburb for $50
. SOLD!!!
I don’t even care if the dishwasher takes the silver band off it in 12 months or so. At $50 it is cheaper than the crappy Kmart one. So now, for the time being, my dinner set is High Class. It makes every meal feel like a “special occasion”
As I read blogs and self help books, I am always amazed at some of the true Rags to Riches stories that abound.
While I have never earned a huge salary, been unemployed for any long period of time or been even close to homeless, I have not often ever thought of my situation as being POOR.
Except for ONE DAY. Let me tell you about it.
The year was 1984, I had been working as a photographic assistant in an advertising agency in the city.
For a young 20 year old girl who was newly married, it was a glamorous position. It was very “Mad Men” with the ad execs ( both men and women) in suits, champagne lunches and celebrity “talent” often arriving in the office.
One of my duties at this job was relief receptionist to cover the lunch hour. I enjoyed this and was paid a small bonus for the extra work. All was going well, I loved the people and the job…UNTIL… I fell pregnant. Sadly 1984 did not have the equality of workplaces today and I was told that it was “not a good look” to have me in the office 🙁
I did manage to find another job from a friend and I was able to work a couple of days a week while some staff members were on holiday.
My husband was working full time and we actually got along reasonably well on the reduced wages. I had been planning on having to reduce our budget to one wage anyway in preparation for the baby’s arrival.
Hubby had found a new job at a large factory nearby, we had a decent car and very little debt. Things were looking good. 🙂 UNTIL.
One Friday hubby came home and said that the factory he worked for closed down over the Christmas break for 4 weeks!! As he had not been there very long, there would be no wages for that time. A Trip to Social Security to see if we were eligible for any assistance proved fruitless. Because he technically still had a job, we were not able to access any benefits. We knew if he quit that job, the likelihood of getting it back in January was slim at best.
So, together we looked at what we had left and formulated a plan. We would need to cover the 4 weeks of close down plus the one week when he went back to work before the first payday.
We could see we just did not have enough… So we moved from the house we were into a tiny one-bedroom flat, we back traded the car to a “sort of” ok one and we felt we were ok. We now had no debt, I paid rent upfront for the duration of the time we would need. All we needed was food, petrol and utilities money.
For Christmas that year, we asked for baby stuff and cash and we were looking OK. We gave family and friends Christmas gifts that I had bought throughout the year, nobody missed out, and I did not need to break the budget. We even managed to have a couple of weekends away camping with friends over the Christmas break.
On Friday the 18th of January 1985, the last Friday before hubby was due to go back to work. Hubby filled up the car with petrol so he could get to work for the upcoming week and I went shopping with our last $20.
Keeping a couple of dollars aside for fresh milk and bread through the week, I spent that last few dollars on eggs, cheese, mince, onions, frozen mixed vegetables and some potatoes.
The resulting huge pot of mince, onions and vegies would turn into the following meal plan for that week :
Savoury Mince on toast x 2
Add some tomato paste and pasta from the pantry and have (sort of ) spaghetti bolognese x 2
Add some mashed potato and grated cheese on top and call it shepherds pie x 2
Add some to roast jacket potatoes
And for the last night whatever was left over could get a tin of tomatoes and some pasta added and it turned into “minestrone”
We were quite proud of ourselves for managing so well at such a tough time. We had not asked family for any money at all, and I doubt they knew we were as skint as we were.
It was a stinking hot Brisbane day, so after dropping me back at the flat with the shopping, hubby and his friend were going out to Centenary Pool in Brisbane (about 20 minutes away from where we lived on the North side) to have a “play” They have high diving towers that “boys” like jumping off 🙂 I set about preparing the big stock pot with the mince mixture and by the time it was simmering away, I was sitting down watching TV.
The first indication that we may have had a problem that day, was it started raining. Then it rained HARDER, then the wind started. The wind was so ferocious I could see the glass sliding door bowing under the force. Then the hail began. At that point I got scared. 🙁 I was 8 months pregnant, on my own in a TINY flat with nowhere to go that felt safe.
Hubby and his friend had seen the storm coming from the high tower of the pool and had started heading home they made it roughly halfway when they got stuck in the hail. From their accounts, the hail was horizontal as it slammed through the back windscreen and broke the front. They were both huddled under the thick car seat covers of our friend’s car.
When they were able, they tried to make it home and they both said that when they came closer to our suburb they were both really scared for both their wives. It looked like a bomb zone.
When hubby got home, he called out for me as he could not find me. When I heard him, I called out and he found me in a curled-up mess hiding in the bottom of the tiny linen cupboard/broom cupboard in the flat. It had not been a fun afternoon 🙁
Our flat was totally devastated with not one single window left whole. The place was flooded the carpet was ruined, the curtains shredded and our bed was also soaked. When I had a look in the kitchen, that is when it hit me the hardest, my big pot of food for the ENTIRE WEEK had broken glass all through it.
There was no power or phone as the lines were all down. We could not contact anybody to see if they were ok. On the way back from town, Hubby had come through the suburb where my parents lived and said it was very badly damaged there too, but we had no way of knowing if we would be able to go there and the reports we were hearing on the radio in the car suggested we would not be able to get through. The inlaws lived approximately 50kms north and it was getting dark by this stage, so there was not much we could do but put a tarp on the floor to try and stay dry, blow up our camp mattress and attempt to get some sleep.
I remember we had sandwiches for dinner that night.
The next morning we were able to get a look at the damage. What a mess. Still no power. ( it would take a couple of days to come back on) and of course NO FOOD 🙁
This was absolutely the lowest point of my life. I honestly had NO IDEA what we were going to do.
Later that day, our landlord came to see the block of flats ( he owned the whole block) He said we could not stay there and gave us $50 in cash to help out until he could get the glass doors and carpets replaced. He also offered that we would have free rent for the time we were not able to live in the flat.
Not long after the landlord had been, hubby’s Mum came. We packed up what we could and spent the next couple of weeks at her house, before finally returning to a fully renovated flat.
It was quite some time before I could face the thought of making Savoury Mince 🙂
I saw this lovely little poem recently by author Mary Stuber. Initially I smiled and laughed to myself, then I really thought about it and how true it is.
We are blessed that we can have food on our plates and a safe home in which to prepare and eat meals.
It made me think about how often we complain about little things and how, with a simple reframe we can turn an annoyance into a blessing.
Some examples:
Do you complain that the kids have left toys all over the living room floor? How blessed that, not only do you have children when so many cannot, but you have had the resources in your budget to be able to provide them with not only lots of toys, but a living room in which to play.
Did you have a minor car accident and now have a repair bill? How blessed that it is only the car with a few scratches and dents and that you, your family or other people were not injured.
Are you complaining about the cost of Christmas? How blessed are you that you have a large family and circle of friends that love you and deserve your generosity.
I could go on and on. It is an important mindset “hack” on the way to happiness, to be able to find the good in all situations. I am often astounded and inspired by people who have had the darkest of situations and find strength and light when they are able to focus on any tiny piece of “silver lining”
I am attempting to make it my habit of stopping myself when I have complaint surface and reframe to find the good.
Thank God for Dirty Dishes;
Thank God for dirty dishes; They have a tale to tell. While others may go hungry, We’re eating very well With home, health, and happiness, I shouldn’t want to fuss; By the stack of evidence, God’s been very good to us.
Have you seen my “Getting $#!T Done” course yet? I ask because, part of the challenge is to audit your life in every area and slowly level each area up to a “10”
One area of life is, of course, “Romance / Significant Other” I have rated this area of my life as a good solid 8 🙂
Nobody is perfect and I don’t know that anybody should actually rate their relationship as a 10. Let’s face it there is always more to do and some little thing that we are not 100% happy with about our partners (or ourselves).
When I was going through my monthly plan and trying to decide how I could level up this area, I thought one thing we enjoy doing is eating out. We choose not to spend $100+ very often on a restaurant meal, but we are both capable home cooks and can replicate a restaurant style dish without too much stress.
Anyway, I digress 🙂
In my never ending quest to become a princess and be wined and dined by my prince I decided that , as I work from home every Friday, I would look through a few menus and have a “fancy dinner” on Friday nights. I will not shop specifically for this meal, but rather use the menu as inspiration to use what I have in the fridge, freezer and pantry.
This weeks menu came from a lovely restaurant not far from us. See Restaraunt in Mooloolaba I have actually only been there once, and it was with a group of girlfriends for a special lunch. It is on my list of places to go with hubby, but is is a stretch on the budget. (A couple would do well to walk out spending under $100 after meals and a couple of drinks)
Scrolling through their menu, this dish caught my eye…. Confit Duck, Spec and Green Pea Medley, Honey Carrot Puree
Yummmmmm, but I don’t normally have duck or spec residing in my well stocked fridge/freezer, but I most certainly do have chicken and bacon!! This sounded like a winner.
This is what I ended up with …. Slow Roasted Lemon Garlic Chicken, Bacon and Green Pea Medley, Honey Carrot Puree.
I found this recipe on Taste for the Chicken and made it with a small half bird from the freezer.
The “bacon and green pea medley” is a side dish I often make for guests.. (a similar recipe is here) In my dish I used frozen peas, green shallots and snow peas and fresh beans all cut into small pieces about the same size as the peas.
For the honey carrot puree, I sauteed a small chopped onion in a drizzle of olive oil until soft but not coloured. to that I added two medium carrots chopped into rounds, and covered with water, a tablespoon of honey and a teaspoon of chicken stock. Simmer this until the water is mostly gone. Be careful, you don’t want it to boil dry.
To serve, mash or puree the carrots ( I used a stick blender) and spread onto a plate in an attractive pool. Nestle the chicken in the puree and surround with the peas. Gently spoon over the sauce from the chicken being careful not to “drown” it
As I am a TERRIBLE food blogger, I forgot to take pictures 🙁
Hubby declared the meal a success, and I felt I had boosted my “relationship score” a point or so – at least for the night 🙂
Does that number strike a feeling of panic and dread, or are you ready for the holiday season?
I have to admit, I am one of “those” annoying people who does not stress about Christmas or the cost of giving gifts. And, yes, I have just about finished my Christmas Gift shopping.
Why?? Well because I buy all throughout the year 🙂
I am fairly lucky in the fact that we do not have a huge family so I only need to buy around 20 gifts.
My husband knows that I cannot pass by a sale table or dump bin 🙂 Invariably I see something and think “Oh! “S” would like that” or “Wow! That would be great for “M”
I have one shelf in a cupboard that we call the “present cupboard” On the inside of the cupboard door is a small whiteboard with all the names written down one side in permanent marker.
Then I fill in the gifts as I buy them in whiteboard marker. That way it is a simple matter to erase the gifts as they get given.
I also know that some of the best gifts can be bought at a bargain price at certain times of the year.
Anything “Christmas-y” can be bought for a tiny fraction of the price just after Christmas. I always buy Christmas paper and cards in the last week of December, often at up to 90% off. Look for such items as paper, cards, decorations for the tree, and themed tableware like plates, bowls, glasses etc. I like to have a supply of Christmas theme plates, cups or glasses that I can use as part of a gift. Make a cake or batch of cookies and display them on a Christmas plate, or simply place chocolates into a Christmas mug and wrap them with cellophane.
The lead-up to New Year’s Eve often brings up good specials on Champagne, Wine and other Alcohol. It can be a good time to buy for birthdays early in the year.
January is the best time to buy stationary, school supplies and office equipment in the “back to school” sales. This is a good time to buy plain-coloured kid’s clothing and running shoes.
February is the time to buy chocolates in the after Valentine’s Day sales.
March -April is Easter, and again after Easter is the time for chocolate and “Easter-y” decorations.
May is Mother’s Day. This is a good time to pick up perfumes, bath sets, soaps, and kitchen appliances.
June – July is a time to keep an eye out for End of Financial Year Sales. This is often the best time to buy big appliances or cars. Any big ticket items often have sales targets to reach and you can very often drive a hard bargain the closer it gets to June 30. Also at this time of year, the Christmas Toy Sales start with the option to purchase on a 6-month lay-by.
August is usually quiet with no major sales happening.
September is Father’s Day and Football grand finals. Father’s Day is a time to pick up gift sets of male toiletries, hardware, BBQ accessories and food sets ( think BBQ sauces and rubs etc), tools, car-related things and the ubiquitous alcohol. The last weeks of September are another time to stock up on alcohol as the stores prepare for football grand final parties.
October is the Bathurst Car Race weekend, so again there are car-related accessories on sale.
November- December brings sales in the lead-up to Christmas.
I find that by purchasing gifts throughout the year, the strain on the budget is minimal. Our family has a dollar figure to work to for gift giving, so I can regularly spend the recommended amount but give a much higher value gift – eg a $50 gift budget, can result in a $100 value when that gift is bought at 50% off.
Many of us have been raised with the idea of "saving for a rainy day", so we diligently squirrel away savings for a disastrous event.
While it is important to have a safety net backup, "Sunshine Cash" is the complete opposite :) It is the money to have FUN with, money to burn, money to enjoy, and money to LIVE.
It is the formula that has seen me "Rise to Rich" and I can help you do the same.
Where to now? Join me on the Sunshine Cash journey. Follow me on Facebook, Pinterest and Instagram for tips and hacks to create YOUR best life.
Oh! Please do comment on my posts. I love to know if something resonates with you, or how you do things differently. I love to hear your stories.
Recently I bought an upgrade…
Does that number strike a feeling of panic and dread, or are you ready for the holiday season?
