It only took 8 days after Cindy called.
A 40-minute phone call, and 8 days later we were in Costa Rica.
In just over a week after one phone call, I was walking into a stunning hot springs hotel with a view of a volcano from my patio.
For someone who sometimes finds it hard to take a breath in the hustle and bustle of life, this was huge.
We did zip lines and a sky walk. We rode horses to a waterfall. We toured the national park and saw all kinds of wildlife. We learned to surf. We took a catamaran out to snorkel. We repelled 165 foot walls. We ziplined 1000 meters above sea level down ½ mile long cables. We ventured through the most magical rainforests that I though only existed in movies.
We took a breath.
This obviously was not a trip that was planned months and months in advance. I had a rare break in my schedule, and so did my husband. The stars almost never align for us like that. It was an almost two-week period where neither of us had crazy deadlines to meet or important meetings. The moment that we realized that, our first call was to our travel agent Cindy.
And 8 days later we were in paradise.
We had breakfast with monkeys. Galloped down the beach on horses with the wind in our hair. We saw a real volcano.
The overwhelming feeling I had was one of gratefulness.
I felt so grateful that we were able to make this decision, to capitalize on this exceptionally rare opportunity the universe presented us.
But it wasn’t luck.
Although I haven’t always, since becoming a Certified Financial Planner and realizing the true freedom that strategic financial planning can offer, we have always made financial planning a priority. We know exactly where we are with cash flow, with our financial goals, with our budget.
It didn’t happen overnight. And even as a Certified Financial Planner, I work with other financial professionals to remove any potential blindness on my own side because of being “too close” to the client (me!).
The fruit of our labour was a strawberry daiquiri on the beach beside a jungle.
I have a client who recently completed the “Angel Tree” at their workplace. There were ten families remaining on the tree who had not been claimed, and the deadline was fast approaching.
The Angel Tree was an initiative in partnership with their local Food Bank to list out the holiday wish list of struggling families in the community. If the families were not “claimed” by the deadline, they would be out of luck.
Having come from poverty herself, my client could not stomach that. She knew the feeling of there being nothing to open on December 25th. The guilt on her parent’s face. The disappointment as a child. She did not want any of those families to feel that.
So she claimed all ten of the remaining families.
Ten families.
She purchased the gifts for all ten and felt nothing but joy as she spent that money from her ever-growing ‘Building Wealth’ pot of money.
It was not an expected expense, but she did not blink. In fact, she happily messaged me after all her purchasing was done to thank me for making it possible – without the intimate knowledge of her own finances that working with me offered her, she would not have felt the confidence to make such a bold move.
True financial freedom is about being able to grab the bull by the horns, to take immediate advantage of the rare opportunities life sometimes throws our way to make our lives better. Without guilt or anxiety.
If you want that kind of freedom, book a call.