My Why: Love & Finance

I started Love and Finance in the middle of a cold January night when my thoughts were circling madly as I was wondering whether I was on the right path to becoming financially independent. I also started it out of spite. That's the petty girl in me.

I was/am still struggling to deal with the aftermath of a rough divorce, all while living in the midst of a pandemic that's paralyzed the whole world. Like many other people, I've come to realize that marriage and a 9-5 job are no guarantees for financial stability. In fact, the end of a marriage can be one of the most destabilizing events of a person's life; even more so for women.

Although I am well-versed in finance and created plenty of wealth for my previous employers and had helped many other women come to grips with their own personal finance, I stupidly didn't apply these skills to myself. I had a number of misguided beliefs around money, wealth and investing:

• I believed that investing is only for the super-rich and the people I worked for.

• I believed I'd make my then-husband feel bad about himself if I saved and earned more money (I was the main breadwinner in our relationship).

• I believed my then-husband knew better what to do with our money.

• I believed that I wasn't worthy of having my own wealth.

• I believed was being greedy and selfish if I wanted to save and invest MY money.

I realized that these beliefs around money would my cripple financial future if I continue to believe them. On top of this, then and now, I was not a big spender: I would ache if I had to buy anything that seemed even slightly frivolous; even just a new dress for a work or family function would cause me palpitations. So, it wasn't that I didn't have the ability to save money; I was quite good at it in that aspect. It was more about how to increase the wealth and changing my mindset to one of abundance and financial wealth.

It was after I was jolted back to reality a few months (!) after signing the divorce papers, moving into an expensive flat and then subsequently getting fired from my job, that I started working more intensely and consciously on improving my money beliefs. I had already worked on re-framing certain other negative beliefs about myself a couple of years earlier (that I was unlovable, that I looked fat even though I was dangerously thin after the divorce) -- now I needed to change my money beliefs, too.

What's more, years ago, I had read several books already on becoming financially independent, but even then, I didn't believe that a) that I could apply these principles to my own life nor b) that I needed to because I was married and c) that I could do it even if I wanted to. However, it seems after marinating in those concepts after so many years, I finally found the guts to start looking after myself financially.

When I created Love & Finance, it was one a pivotal moment for me: it solidified my fortitude

to actively look for ways to increase my wealth. I also created Love & Finance despite not fully believing that I could do this. Out of spite that I could overcome some of these dark thoughts and pain that haunted me post-divorce.

This brings me to my "WHY", then. Why am I now so fiercely focused on creating several income streams and passive income? Does it make me "a cheapskate" to eschew buying new clothing for the next year or so? Why am I now cutting down on unnecessary expenses (like a high monthly rent)? Why am I streamlining my life and getting rid of stuff? Does constantly thinking about money make me greedy?

The reason is the simple: Financial Independence will give me the life that I dream of.

And because I believe in the power of affirmations and manifestations, I'll state my the goals for my life as if they are true now (I'll cover this in another blog post if I haven't scared you off yet, lol).

I live life on my own terms.

I live a meaningful life that isn't tied to a job that I have to do for the next 40-50 years.

I work whenever and wherever I want on my passion projects.

I own my home.

I am my own boss of my many businesses.

I am rich in money and wealthy in health.

How does all this tie into generating massive passive income? Because I want to be able to work on my passion projects whenever and wherever I want, any income I make should flow in on a regular basis and with little effort on my part once it's all been set up. So, of course, it may take a bit of time to set the foundations until this income will flow in easily. Passive income creates security, stability and freedom for me. Because it is not limited by my time and effort, it will have a knock-on effect on building my wealth.

I started Love & Finance to help:

• document my journey to financial independence

• keep me accountable

• inspire others to do the same (we're all in it together)

The awesome side effects of this tiny blog and my IG has been connecting with people in similar situations as myself as well getting a bit of passive income. While most other finance or financial independence blogs are written by and for men who are in finance or IT based out of the US, I hope I can contribute to this space via my female and Swiss/Europe perspective.

As I've mentioned already, I also created Love & Finance a little bit out of spite. And that's the petty side of me but it's also the side that keeps fueling my need to put words into action. To keep investing in myself and into my financial future.

Sources:

https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/jomf.12629

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