During graduation five years ago, when the principal gave his speech and spoke about financial freedom, Victoria listened to her friends whisper away about luxury cars a wardrobe full of Gucci, Dolce and Gabbana, and being able to purchase tickets to anywhere in the world for vacation. But now that she gave it a thought, she thought of being able to pay the bills and live an affordable life without noticing the dent in her account balance.
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She thought about being able to afford the life she wanted most comfortably, without having to feel guilty that the money she was spending on one area was affecting another area of her life; Like when she had spent $10,000 recently, changing her wardrobe. She knew her clothes had become smaller than she was, a couple of them were faded and others had started having tiny holes in them. She knew she deserved to have new clothes after all her hard work and after judiciously using the old ones for years, yet, she couldn't help but feel guilty that she wasn't going to be able to send her younger sister money for upkeep that month.
No matter how hard she worked or how much she earned over the years, she still worried about money. Still had outstanding bills, and debts sometimes. She had worked for a management firm for three years then switched to working for the administrative arm of another firm virtually for the past two years yet it made no difference.
On-site or off-site, the money was not just enough. And the bills never got smaller.
Her friend Stacy had advised her to latch onto one of the gentlemen, good-looking or not, who had fat cash in their bank accounts and was willing to lavish it on her in exchange for warming his bed at night, "it reduces the bills you know" Stacy had said smacking lipgloss on her lips firmly but Victoria had found no luck with that either.
It seemed the Queen of Slay Queens, whoever she was, selected only a beautiful few like Stacy to bless with men who were ready to go foolish for them without maltreating or abusing them.
In fact, the man she met had only made her want to become a more useful person. He had been the major reason she left her on-site job and opted for a virtual one. She was still brooding about her sorry state when her phone rang. It was Dominic, her childhood friend who studied in China.
"Hey, you!" She smiled the minute his rich voice came through the other end
"Hey D."
"Yo, what's wrong? You okay?" That was what she loved the most about him. He knew her well even though they had not seen each other in three years.
She was spilling the thoughts she was nursing earlier before she could stop herself, holding sobs and sniffling the whole time.
Dominic fell silent for some time before releasing an audible sigh. "I was going to tell you that I landed in LA a couple of hours ago. Can we meet?"
Three hours later, they were in Dominic's house, eating cake and washing it down with lemonade.
"You're at the first stage of financial freedom Victoria; earning. You just need to get acquainted with the other stages which are saving and investing. Then you must also ensure to live within your means."
Victoria shook her head like something he said wasn't adding up.
"I can't save or invest D, I have so much to do with my money already".
"Well, that's a problem. You need to find a means to do both, that's your route to financial freedom."
Victoria wanted to tell Dominic that she wasn't interested any longer and she just wanted to go home, but she was the one who came to him in tears. She couldn't afford to give up after the effort he had put into helping her already.
"So what do I need to do?"
He shrugged. "You tell me what you want to do."
"I can give up some part of my income for saving and investments as you suggested, but it would be a really little part…" he nodded in agreement.
"Then living within my means isn't a challenge at all. I've done that all my life."
"Good." He rose to draw up a sheet from one of his shelves. "This is an accountability sheet. You write your goals here" he indicated with his index finger at the spot that read 'GOALS' "Then tick the boxes as you achieve them monthly. Please, avoid pressure and do this at your own pace. You don't have to start with so much and it wouldn't be making any sense in the beginning but it will pay off".
She nodded to show she understood then got the sheet and smiled at him.
"Thank you."
Rising with a new determination in her heart, she set out for her journey to financial freedom.
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