From financial stress to financial freedom

I thought I had financial freedom. But it came at the cost of the freedom of my soul. So that's not what I would call financial freedom now.

August 2013. One decision. My whole world would change.

I packed my bags. I had been living together with the father of my children for fifteen years. What's more, I had lived completely financially carefree the first thirty-four years of my life. 

And there I was. Literally with a bag of clothes and four children on the step of this huge house... leaving.

No work. No income. No home. To be honest, at that moment, my confidence was bigger than my reality check.

I asked to stay with friends. Not a small question considering the size of my family. My friends had a big place and four children of their own. 

And so my new journey began. No plan, no strategy, no goals. Only big emotions as quicksand to build my new life upon. Insecurity to the max.

I started to pick up some old passions: theatre, dance, music. In doing so, I rediscovered my original passion for writing. I started writing lyrics and poems. I even started a blog back then 😊.

But still: no income. Living off of little savings and a monthly fee from child benefits we receive as a mom in Belgium.

I had just started full time as an independent trainer and coach six months before I had left my life as it was. But now I found myself incapable of working because of the emotional roller coaster I was in. So intending to stay with my friends for three months resulted in this co-living situation for over a year. To this day I feel eternally blessed for having such great people in my life and next to the hardships I went through, we also had a blast together in this big family of eleven.

September 2014. Moving out. I could stay at the place of a friend's father for a couple of months. He was not living there at that time.

Still no work. No income. Lots of stress. I nearly burnt down the house. I never told my friend. Sorry, Caroline.

January 2015. I could move to the old home of a client. Beautiful place in nature. For the first time I could see my future again.

I picked up my work. Launched a training and had fifteen people enrolling in a group program to work for a year with me. I undercharged heavily, but I was so happy with that income at the time. I could pay the rent.

I started working on the house to make it a home. I built a shed in the garden where I could do group programs.

I worked night and day, loving what I was building, but still with very unstable and little income. In addition I was taking care of four little children and dealing with intense family (fatherly) issues, so I often felt tired and stressed out and not able to give my work my all.

May 2016. The owner of the house told me we had to leave, he was going to sell the house. 

I crashed. Burnt out.

I put so much effort into that house and I dreaded moving again. For months I could not read, write, go to the supermarket, do any basic stuff. The work I had build up, I had to let go again, simply because I was incapable.

January 2017. We moved to a nice, but expensive house in the country side. The only house to rent in our neighborhood at that time really. 

I had to get an extra job to be able to pay the rent. So I worked part time for an organization and tried to start over with my coaching business. 

We had three years of more or less financial stability, but you could not call it financial freedom. There was no room for travel, little trips, gifts, only second hand clothing, bikes, shoes, etc. I had to say 'no' a lot of times. Nothing wrong with that to be honest, we had our basics covered and it was a very humbling and also beautiful process in consciousness. But still, there was financial stress.

Because the house was so expensive and the owners were not willing to invest in it, it seemed like a more intelligent plan to look to buy a house instead of renting. Turning forty in 2019. The now or never feeling creeped in through the backdoor.

I never thought the bank would grant me a loan, based on my earnings of the last years, but Lo and behold, I received a good deal and loan, so...

April 2019. I bought a house 🎉. Move number five in six years time (I call myself a professional home mover by now).

September 2019. Next to my part time office job, I fully committed to launching my home practice (after renovating part of the house myself and building a room where I could physically receive clients). I built a brand new website and threw an online launching party for my new baby 'Your body Your Home'. Next to coaching, I had always been a good body worker and now I focused on helping entrepreneurs living less in their head and more in their body. My clientele grew slowly but steadily.

March 2020. Corona + lockdown. I could no longer serve my clients physically.

June 2020. I lost my job at the organization I worked for. 

How am I going to pay off this loan??? Looooooong and stressful holidays.

I kept on building on my home practice whenever corona rules allowed me to (and sometimes when they didn't also 😲). But still... 

August 2021. I was financially drowning.

September 2021. I spent my last money on an online course to build financial freedom as an online coach. Really. Cold sweat for days making this decision.

October 2021. I made 33,000 euro in one month by applying everything I learned.

To be honest, I didn't make 33,000 euro every month that followed. Sometimes I earned more, sometimes less, depending on how much effort I chose to make. Sometimes I love to work less and travel and spend time with my family. 

Financial freedom is as relative as to what you need to feel free. 

Last year I traveled with my four children (adolescents by now) to Mexico. We roadtripped for 3 weeks, not having to care too much about where to stay and where to eat (not in terms of budget anyways, in terms of food poisoning, we could have cared a little bit more 🤮).

And now, I combine all of the things I love to do (coaching, teaching, writing, creating online courses) and monetize them as I continue my journey...

To all those who believe in success overnight. Think again. Every successful purpose driven creator has his or her own story. How would you love yours to evolve?