I have spent the long weekend shifting from my current place to my new place. It has been a tiring but interesting journey in finding out about managing change in financial freedom.

Changes in life are inevitable. As we progress along this journey towards financial freedom, things change all the time. Our financial situation, our health, our relationships at work and at home. Change is the only constant is the common phrase we hear but are we truly able to embrace change in our quest towards financial freedom?

Managing Change

1. Be Open

Human beings are creatures of habit and like to continue to be in the comfort zone. It takes a fundamental mindset change to be open and receptive to new ideas, environments and situations. It was the same for me when my spouse first brought up the idea of moving house. At first, I was quite resistant because I hated the idea of packing and unpacking all my stuff and also spending money on renovation, top-up in home equity for new house and related administrative and monetary costs.

However, the more I listened and opened up myself to the possibility of moving, the more I realised that it was not all bad and the change would result in a shorter commute time to work for me, better rest and sleep for the whole family and a family friendly location near to a park and other green areas.

Thus being open to change to a new residence did result in outcomes that were more positive than I had envisioned.

2. Be Prepared

The actual move itself was quite chaotic and tiring but we managed to pull through with the help of an efficient moving company, a mindset of taking one day at a time and being prepared for contingencies by being flexible and ready to adapt to new circumstances.

Making a plan on how to move helped a lot as we did have the sequence of events set out. However, the actual move deviated from the plan because the movers came a little late and there were minor hiccups which fortunately were resolved on the day itself.

3. Under-burden yourself

Moving my residence opened up my eyes to the amount of junk one can accumulate in one’s 10 year stay at one location. I lost count of the number of bags of stuff that I threw down the chute that I hardly used even when I owned them. It made me realise that it is the same in our journey towards financial freedom. Unburden oneself with having lots of “stuff”. The fewer items in life we have such as clothes, accessories, gadgets; the simpler life we can lead and have more time to focus our life energies on the things that matter to us instead of keeping up and maintaining the stuff in our lives.

In our journey towards financial freedom, unburdening is to continue to live within one’s means and spend less of our hard earned monies on stuff that does not matter so much.

Unburdening has another dimension of building up support groups and networks of people sharing your burdens with them. Talking out work or family issues with trusted friends or relatives.

I found my group of four kakis to have been supportive in my quest to be of great help to offer their moral support to get me through the challenges of shifting house with a spouse, a 2 year old and mid-stream change of helpers thrown into the mix.

4. Change provides an Opportunity

The interesting thing about change is that it provides tremendous opportunities as well. In my case, the change of home allowed me to realise the capital gains from my existing property into a tangible form as I upgrade to a larger and more peaceful residence. The actual cash outlay is mainly the difference between selling and buying price as well as miscellaneous legal, interest costs and minor renovation costs.

While this has set my financial freedom target by about 1.5 to 2 years, it has opened up my eyes to what my money can do for me in terms of purchasing a preferred residential location and more space for my daughter to run around at home. The value of such benefits is worth the increase in home equity needed.

What are some of the changes you face in your journey towards financial freedom?

Share with Panzer in the comments section.

Be well and prosper.

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