Being Proactive Is One Of My Financial Well-Being Hacks

Cost of living expenses are not going down any time soon so what are you doing to ensure your financial wellbeing?

Photo by Kate Hliznitsova on Unsplash

Seven months ago, I quit my job.

A year before I quit my job, I started planning my exit. I used my 9–5 income to fund classes I needed to prepare me for my next career. I also started investing more and saving more. I calculated how much money we needed in liquid form to get through at least six months.

Seven months ago, I did not anticipate a war, the pandemic to still be going on or that inflation would still be an issue.

The best thing to do when a situation is only getting worse is to look at your finances and make a plan for the present and the near future.

What does your present situation look like?

What does the near future look like if you do not make a move to increase your income?

Cutting back on your expenses can only get you so far. At the rate that prices have increased that may not be enough. What will you sacrifice by cutting back on your expenses? Will you be able to sustain your wellbeing by cutting back? I can’t.

Cutting back more for us would mean no fun. We enjoy eating out. Enjoy spending time with family and friends. We enjoy giving. Giving those things up are not an option.

The only option is to increase our income.

I just got hired to be a substitute teacher with our local school district. Do I need the money now? No, I don’t.

Will I need it in a few months? Yes, I will.

Desperate people rarely make good decisions. That’s not a position that I want to be in. After looking at my present and future situation I realized that I needed to increase my income. I applied and got hired by our local school district as a substitute teacher. I have yet to work a day because my paperwork is still processing. Who knows when I will start. Having planned ahead has me feeling calm. I can wait for my paperwork to be approved in peace knowing that I still have a good financial cushion in place.

I chose how to increase my income wisely. I don’t want to be somewhere for more than 7 hours. I want flexibility. I don’t want to bring my work home. I want to add value to people’s lives.

Looking at the present and the future is best practice in ensuring your financial wellbeing. When I look at our present situation, I know that I still have a few months of finances in place. When I look into the future I see high prices in place, summer camp fees for my kids, and mostly a time of uncertainty as we don’t know if the pandemic is truly over or politicians are making moves to get voters. We also don’t know what the outcome of the Ukraine/Russian War will be.

Be proactive when it comes to your finances, and you will never stress about money again.