Let’s Talk Money

Last month we paid off our mortgage.🎉

Even writing that I feel like I shouldn’t be telling you about my financial success. It’s certainly not the done thing here in the UK.😳

Add in the current economic climate (with a cost of living crisis) and I definitely shouldn’t be spouting about financial abundance!

Plus, as a woman, I might cause others to feel bad about themselves. Or they might feel jealous and dislike me.😞

Tara Mohr talks about this propensity for women to diminish their successes in her book, Playing Big. It’s like a primal fear of being excluded from the herd.

But what if, instead of indulging our fears, we share our stories about what’s possible?

Here is one of mine…

My husband and I had a longstanding goal to pay off our mortgage by the time we were 50.

Four years ago, we realised that we’d need to take some drastic action if we still wanted to accomplish said goal. It was around this time that I listened to a woman (being interviewed by Marie Forleo) describing how she had downsized to create more financial ease so that she could do what she loved.

What she hadn’t reckoned on was that living in a smaller space also created more connection with her family too. An unexpected gift from the universe.💝

Stepping off the “more, more, more, bigger is better” train and prioritising joy and experiences appealed to my husband and I.

We too downsized and reduced our mortgage. 

However, even with the downsize, our mortgage was projected to finish when we were 53.

Then, at the start of this year, my husband turned 50 and my own 50th was coming up in August.

In the spring we had a conversation – ‘do we still want to play this mortgage game or let it go?’

I knew in my heart how good it would feel to ease the financial pressure in our household while I’m doing my Creative Writing Masters. I also wanted to create space for my writing in the longer term. I was (and am) inspired by the “contract” Elizabeth Gilbert made with her creativity – detailed in her book, Big Magic – that she would take care of it and not expect it to take care of her.

Plus being free from monthly mortgage payments would open up the possibility of saving more towards the adventurous holidays we want to have as a family.😆

So yes, game still on with a slightly amended goal – to pay it off in the year we both turn 50.

But how could we achieve this?🤔

‘We could sell our beach hut’, my husband pragmatically suggested.

I say our beach hut, but really it was MY precious beach hut.

My very own “She Shed” by the sea.

For the last 10 years having a “room of my own” – where I write, daydream, escape to – helped me through my tumultuous 40’s.

In our previous house, it was a cabin on the edge of the woods and then, when we downsized, the beach hut had been our unexpected silver lining.

Plus it was a step towards my dream of one day having a house by the sea.

How could I let that go?

What message would I be giving to the universe/myself?

I sat with it for a number of weeks. Confused. Fearful.

I kept coming back to one word, “Trust”.

We could sell the hut, win the mortgage game and, in so doing, create the space for a house by the sea to show up.

We listed the hut with an agent. The first person who came to view bought it, and within a month of my 50th birthday we had paid off our mortgage.

So there you have it, a tale of flourishing finances made up of intention + an openness to possibility + action + trust.

I wonder,

What is an intention you have for your finances, that inspires you?🤔

What is one step you could take towards it?🤔

If you need help with your money mindset, I have found Denise Duffield-Thomas’ work helpful. Her first book is a useful starting point to uncovering and releasing your money blocks

And if you need evidence that it’s not too late to start, then check out David Bach’s book, Start Late, Finish Rich.

Both are written in an accessible style to help you unblock limiting beliefs around money and take practical steps to improve your finances.

Let’s flourish together!

Arlene x