Our Spending Choices

Change How You Think About Money and Create Your Lifestyle of Choice

Discover How We Overcame Financial Setbacks and Still Retired Early

Financial Recovery after Divorce

Retire by the Age of 55 and Still Enjoy Life

Travelling Australia - Our Lifestyle of Choice

How We Retired Early by Making Mindful Spending Choices

We are Paul and Annie

Many people would consider us to be a “normal” couple in our fifties. Kids had left home, we had middle income earning jobs and a mortgage.

We’ve had several financial setbacks in our time including immigration, divorces, a failed business, and a long period of unemployment.

What might not be so “normal” about us, is that despite all of these financial setbacks we were able to retire in our mid-fifties and started living the lifestyle that we chose.

The obvious assumption I’m sure you’re making is that we “must have tons of money”.

No – in fact when we met each other 10 years ago, we both had very little behind us.

Both of us had to recover financially after divorce, Annie had immigrated from South Africa (with very devalued assets) we suffered a failed business and Paul had a stint of 10 months of unemployment.

It took us less than 10 years to turn around our finances and we were able to build up enough assets that we could retire early.

We Changed Our Spending Habits

So how did we do it?

Well – it was a number of things. We started by understanding the psychology of money, and from there we realised how much our thought processes dictated our future

The next part of the journey was a process of money mind set changes and knowing that we had very clear choices to make – spending choices.

A couple of years after we met we were faced with unemployment, which is never easy, but even more so being in the older age bracket.

We chose to open up our thinking and believe. We worked on our mindset and thoughts and ended up relocating to Sydney as that’s where an opportunity opened up.

So that was the first thing – open up your thinking to invite opportunities and be prepared to move.

We were living and working in Sydney for 3 years, both earning good money and spending very good money too!

It was a choice, and we enjoyed our time there and had a lot of fun.

But this came at a price!

It was during this time though that we decided this rat race life, with stressful corporate jobs and long working hours, wasn’t the lifestyle we wanted to continue.

How to Change Your Money Mindset

And this was the start of our big paradigm shift.

We really focused on changing our money mindset and focused on our goals – the lifestyle we wanted to live.

We started thinking about what was the lifestyle we really wanted and how could we achieve this without the good-paying jobs that we had (and the long hours that came with it). We didn’t have a clear idea of exactly what our lifestyle was going to look like. It was a process where everything just started to roll and ideas started to take shape.

We knew we didn’t have a pot of gold to retire on, nor do either of us have any inheritance coming our way. So, no potential “pot of gold” there either!

So, we really started looking into how we spent our money and decided that we had to save what we could and invest as wisely as possible.

We became very clear as to what was of value to us and looked at strategies that would give us the investment gains that we needed. Bearing in mind that we were already “middle aged” and so didn’t have too many earning years ahead of us.

How Important is our Mindset when it Comes to Achieving Money Goals?

Your mindset is all important!

Without the right mindset and beliefs the chances of you being able to achieve your money goals are slim – unless you win the lottery or have a big inheritance!

We started to do personal development – working on our mindset, our thought patterns, our attitude to obstacles that arose in life. We redefined who we wanted to be and how we wanted to live.

Many people don’t realise that their spending habits are determining their lifestyle for them.

It should be the other way around where their lifestyle should determine their spending habits!

We also fell into this trap, living it up in Sydney!

What happened then was the realisation how much money we had been unconsciously spending! Thousands! Our spending habits were determining our lifestyle!

We became “conscious spenders”. We chose what we bought based on whether it was of value to us. Not whether it was “expensive” or not, but on its VALUE to us.

Our jobs were becoming more and more stressful, with long hours and an increasing amount of travelling. All of these stresses started to affect our relationship. Being in our second marriages, this was a very big red flag to both of us – and not one we wanted to ignore.

We developed a belief that we could achieve anything we wanted to – and if that was to give up the stressful life we were leading – then we could achieve that.

Mind set changes were the biggest change. We decided that we didn’t want to spend what little was left of our lives working harder and harder, and longer and longer hours for seemingly little appreciation or satisfaction.

The crux of lifestyle is about how you spend your money.

And we all make those choices about this every day.

Nothing will change if you don’t change!

What are mindful spending choices?

Being mindful with your money is a form of conscious or intentional spending. It creates an awareness of how you think, feel and act with money. This directly affects your spending behaviours.

In a world where we are constantly faced with marketing strategies and consumerism, instant gratification has become the daily norm.

Do we continue to allow such external factors to heavily influence our Spending Choices?

We believe it’s more important than ever before, to exercise a clear and mindful approach with your spending.

Here we will explore and share:

the different aspects of mindful spending and the impact it can have on our personal lives and those around us
the influence of historical beliefs, family influence and cultural factors on our spending habits
we’ll also be discussing the relevance and importance of aligning our spending with personal values and goals.
and then we will provide a number of practical tips on how to save more money by spending less

Mindful Spending - the beginning

The journey you are about to start, is about taking the time to create thoughtful reflection and exploration.

It’s an opportunity to create some clear mind space and allow yourself to be open to new beliefs and learnings.

And if it resonates with you, then it creates an opportunity for your own mindful change.We strongly believe and practice that being mindful with our spending is not just about managing finances.

It’s a holistic approach towards having a fulfilling life that aligns with your values and priorities.

At Spending Choices we don't offer financial advice or tools.

What we do offer is a lot of down to earth tips and practical advice about how to change your spending habits and beliefs!

Join us on this journey of discovery as we explore the world of mindful spending together.

Changing your money beliefs.

Thoughts and beliefs affect your ability to create greater value around money you earn.

And this also means placing a value on what you spend. We will explore how this can impact your ability to save more and spend less.

Naturally, it’s not as easy as just thinking about money, it does need to go a bit deeper to make sustainable changes.

Have you noticed how the topic of money can be very polarising. Why? Some people happily avoid what they perceive to be a difficult topic.

Money discussions can also create tension in a relationship.

However, you CAN create a positive structure around your thinking or ideas concerning money. This can certainly have an impact. And not just financially but also for your mindset and personal happiness.

The approach that we have taken over the past few years has seen a conscious change to our thought processes about money in general.