DESIGN YOUR PATH TO FREESTYLE LIVING

DESIGN YOUR PATH TO FREESTYLE LIVING by: Kathy Binner

I was sitting at the red light saying a little prayer that the gas gauge would not suddenly register empty and that the engine would not sputter and choke to a stop. “Turn green, turn green”, I said to myself. Not only was I almost out of gas, but I was going to be late to clock in. The gas gauge pointer was just above the big E. I didn’t have time the night before to get gas – working two jobs was making me exhausted and it felt like this schedule was killing me. Or at least killing my physical and mental health. The only thing that kept me going was payday when the amounts on the two checks added together would pay the rent, the utilities, and the groceries.

Don’t get me wrong, I liked my two jobs well enough. One was in the office at an insurance agency and one was at the front desk of a local hotel checking in guests, hoping for promotion into hotel management. I liked helping people and I liked the other staff. It was just too many hours. But I didn’t know how to stop.

After all, I needed the money. I had no health insurance, and I was living payday to payday with no extra cash for emergencies. I had a car that I couldn't keep running and even worse, I had no means to save toward retirement! But working hard was a virtue, wasn’t it?

As I sat at the red light, I saw a young mom pushing her child in a stroller in the park on my right. An older man was sitting on the park bench reading the paper, and a gal was speeding by on her bike. Who were these people? Didn’t they have jobs?

How did they have the time, or the money, to walk in the park during everyone’s work day, to sit on a bench and not have a care in the world, to read the paper like the day is all their own, and to ride bikes on the beautiful bike paths that wind through the wooded park? Some folks were just lucky, I thought.

I would love to be riding my bike. As a kid growing up out in the countryside, my friends and I would leave right after breakfast and ride our bikes on the country roads until dusk. The rule was when the car’s headlights started coming on, it was time to be home. But now, I barely had time to sleep, shower, grab a bite, and get clocked in. Sometimes, I would wake up and try to remember what job I was supposed to be dressing for. And many times, I would drive too fast, and on empty, just to clock in on time.

There was no time to stop for gas this particular morning, or any morning for that matter. Then at the end of the day, as a single mom, there was no one to pick up my daughter but me, and I needed to get home to get some sleep. Bike riding wasn’t even on the list. And apparently stopping for gas didn’t often make it on the list either.

I felt guilty being away from my daughter for so many hours. But what could I do? I knew I needed to make a change in my lifestyle or at least my work schedule. But I told myself it wasn’t in the cards for me to have a life like that.

Then something happened that changed my life forever. My mom sat me down and had a talk with me about 'getting on with it' meaning figuring out a way to make more money.

I was crushed! Didn’t she see how hard I was working? Didn’t she see the hours I was putting in on these two jobs? She was even expecting me to work less! I had just received a promotion into management at my hotel job. There was no way I could work fewer hours. What could I do?

I needed to create passive income. Making money while you sleep has a beautiful ring to it, and that's the idea behind passive income.

Most people think of income as something they have to do labor for, like going to work for a day and then getting paid.

Passive income is money you earn even when you're not working. It takes some investment of time, money, energy, or all three, but then the money just comes in, helping you pay off a student loan, dig out of credit card debt, save for retirement, or advance other personal finance goals.

I decided to invest in real estate for my passive income. There are an endless variety of ways to invest in real estate, from taking out a home mortgage to building a property empire that spans the country.

While the latter is probably out of reach for most of us, there’s no shortage of options. Buying rental property is one of the oldest and most basic ways to invest in real estate. I started by buying a condo for myself, then leveraging my equity to buy more investment properties.

I was forever changed by the fact that I now had a plan for passive income and the freedom to live the lifestyle I always wanted. I could work fewer hours.

I now saw myself in control, confident and a good provider for the first time ever! I saw myself as a business owner. Much to my surprise, I received the Chamber of Commerce Business of the Year Award! and Then I received the Chamber of Commerce Entrepreneur of the Year Award.

And that's why I knew I couldn't stop there. I realized I needed to teach others how to do what I have done.

I needed to make getting healthy and creating passive income even easier for others. But how?

I wanted to help individuals and entrepreneurs just like you go from panic to passive income. Plus have some fun getting healthy.

This made me feel like there's so much more for me to do... I was just getting started!

For me, it all started with the concept of having total freedom—having passive income and the ability to set the pace of my daily calendar and the overall direction of my life. I was done with racing between two jobs and being at the mercy of corporate owners and managers.

What has changed for me, however, is the definition of total freedom. I learned early on that I didn’t just want freedom for the sake of freedom — I wanted to do something with this newfound freedom. I wanted to create things, challenge myself, and value exploring, growth, and learning.

I want to be totally free with a goal, a project, a vision to pursue. Freedom is the opportunity to choose our own future, but we must choose.

What I'd like you to take away from all this is no matter how tough things are, keep going, never stop learning and Simply Start to find Your Next Best Step to getting healthy, growing your passive income, and finally Freestyle Living!

And that girl on the bike… today that’s me!

Kathy Binner