Escaping the 9-5. It’s the dream of so many and yet it’s still somewhat a mystery for most. We’re going to breakdown the exact steps that you need to be able to escape the 9-5 and live the life that you dream about. After all, you’re here for one life and you were most certainly not put here to slave away for your boss and never get to spend quality time with your family.
It’s the biggest scam of this age and we’re here to show you how to escape the 9-5 and live life.
Before you hand in your notice to leave, there are things that you need to put in place in order to have a better chance at success, especially if you have a family or other financial commitments.
Also, I am sharing this from experience. I have been able to do this and am passionate about showing other moms how it’s possible. I’ll break it down into actionable steps that I used to be able to escape the 9-5 and live a life of travel with the family. We are currently living in Niacragua and loving life!
Let’s go!
Steps Needed to Escape The 9-5
Step 1: Get Your Finances in Order
Firstly, you need to make sure you’re sorted with your finances. Have a planning ‘financial date’ with your significant other. List out all of your debts, in order from smallest to largest. Write how much is owed and what the monthly repayments are. The monthly repayments are non-negotiable and will be allocated to your monthly expenses.
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Step 2: Know Your Monthly Expenses
I’m constantly surprised by how many people don’t know how much they need to be able to live the lifestyle that they are currently living. You won’t have something to aim for if you don’t know how much you need!
Track your expenses for a minimum of two months. Write down every dollar spent (every single one) and allocate it to a category, like groceries, clothing, self-care or utilities. Make sure you add your monthly repayments to it!
You will start to get a good idea of where you’re spending your money. For more budgeting tips, check out Dave Ramsey’s 7 Baby Steps for Financial Freedom.
Step 3: Where Can You Reduce Your Spending
Now that you know what you are spending, you can start to see where you can reduce it. You might be surprised how much you are actually spending. Obviously, you want this amount to be well under what you’re currently earning. If you are spending more than you’re earning, you need to get very serious about reducing your spending. It will be very hard to escape the 9-5 if you’re spending more than you’re making.
Start to create a budget and reduce your spending by cancelling memberships, cutting back on the food bill and maybe committing to shopping secondhand.
Step 4: Reduce Your Debt With Leftover Money
Before we get to saving, you need to reduce that debt if you have any. You need to eliminate all debt, except your mortgage, as a matter of urgency. This could be by paying them off or you could sell anything that isn’t serving you. Can you go to a one-car family? Can you downsize your house and pay off other debts in the process? Can you sell everything and live on the road in a caravan?
Honestly, there are so many ways to be able to reduce your debt. If it’s too overwhelming, then it might be time to make significant changes and sell off what you can. And from experience, it’s actually so freeing to have less to worry about and care for!
Step 5: Start an Extra Income Stream
The key to leaving your 9-5 is to be able to earn money from somewhere else, preferably an income stream that you’re in control off and that doesn’t require too much from you. Whilst you’re still working, start building an audience. Pick a niche that resonates with you and start to grow an audience on social media, a blog or a vlog. Hopefully, you can pick something that comes naturally to you. Something that you’re already talking about with others in real life. Something that people tend to come to you for advice. You know that you’ll be able to communicate with your audience and give them value.
Write down all the things that come naturally to you. Are they things that you enjoy talking about? Do people come to you for advice in that area? And can you create a digital product in that niche, solving a problem that your audience has?
Start creating, learn the skills and commit to it. You won’t be great in the beginning, no one is. Just do it anyway.
Step 6: Grow Your Business With One Hour a Day
I know how hard it is to grow a business when you’re working your 9-5. The key to escaping it though is to commit to your business even if it means being uncomfortable.
I have found that getting up one hour earlier is the best way to make progress. You’re fresh and you give your best to your business. Don’t leave it to after work, you aren’t at your best and you won’t make as much progress.
Get hyper-focused in that hour. Work on the tasks that make the most impact on your business. That will likely be creating content and writing and/or making videos (depending on your platform. Commit and show up each day.
Step 7: Replace Your Living Expenses
Notice I didn’t say to replace your income? Replace your living expenses. If you take drastic measures to reduce your living expenses, you will be able to escape the 9-5 quicker. Remember that might mean you downsize, move to another area or even leave your country and go live somewhere way cheaper. By doing that, you buy yourself more time to make more money from your business.
Step 8: Add An Additional Income Stream if Needed
Whilst I am a hardcore believer in ‘going all in on one income stream’ (I’ve learnt that the hard way!), if you need to escape the 9-5 now, then offer a service to others whilst you work on your business.
You would have learnt a thing or two about online business by now so you’re more than capable of offering something as a service. Do you like social media? Then offer social media management to other businesses. What about copywriting? Offer a newsletter service to businesses? Or maybe website design? Offer it.
You see where I’m going with this! It can help bump up your income in order for you to be able to escape the 9-5 quicker.
Escaping the 9-5 Isn’t As Daunting As You Might Think
Now it’s time to get to work. Escaping the 9-5 will take work, time and dedication. It takes learning new skills, putting yourself out there and probably some failures. And you know what, that’s ok. We all go through those hard times and it’s the people who can learn, pivot and make it work that succeed.
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