In the years of returning to U.K. I became a single mother of two children by two different fathers; unlucky in love, naive, choosing wrong, taking the easy way out or taking advantage of the freedom the U.K. afforded one to walk away from a relationship? Several reasons/excuses can be attributed to this, but irrespective I had a huge responsibility and work to do, to ensure I was able to give my children the best I could; and so I did, in the best way I knew how and could; and of course that included me passing down the age old wisdom: ‘save’. We of course started with piggy banks and then bank accounts; and I tried to lead by example, but as a single mum, saving proved a great challenge!
My children grew up (the older one particularly) during my buy and sell stint. My eldest will travel with me on the trips to U.S. to buy things. I remember my youngest being a few months old and me leaving him with my mum, to make an overnight (or perhaps a day, can’t remember too well now) trip to Italy to buy some jewellery for sale. I would imagine they were too young to learn anything from that time of my life, but who knows! However, I am pretty sure they know me as an “employee”, which is what I have been for more than two decades now.
I was fortunate to have fallen into a profession that I enjoy; Finance! I obtained a degree in Accounting and went on to do a post-graduate degree in Finance and then proceeded to worked in Finance and Administration in the not-for-profit sector, where I have risen in ranks to become a Finance Director. Somewhere along the line of working in finance, I discovered my love for numbers (which led me into tutoring maths) and problem solving This meant I was committed to my job and would spend hours balancing/reconciling accounts, creating reporting tools and travelling to offices around the world to help identify financial management issues and create tools to quickly identify, resolve and manage issues as they arose and help build internal control and monitoring systems. This has been my world over the last two decades, even though through the years I have had several business ideas (I have a bookful of them!), but have never done anything with those ideas.
In the last two/three years, the UK Charity Commission and HMRC put in place several requirements of senior officers of an organisation, and in response to that, rather than take my time repairing my credit status (which had gotten worse when I had taken a job outside U.K.) as I had been doing, I was forced to hasten this process or risk being disqualified. Am I glad I did that! My children were obviously grown up when I had to do this and watched me rallying around trying to raise finance to do this and I hope the importance of maintaining a good credit record stays with them.
Just over a year and a half ago, I hit the golden age of 50! I am so grateful for the years of being, the life I have lived and been accorded, the lessons I have been blessed with and for my family, friends and all those with whom I have crossed path.
Attaining this milestone however brought with it massive self-reflection of where I am, where I want to be and whether I was living a purposeful life. Alongside that came the need to shed the weight of any debt I had! Suddenly, I seemed to develop a fear of debt and the interest only mortgage I had maintained for about a decade became a real issue for me as the realisation of the actual amount of the debt (purchase price of the property) I continued to carry suddenly dawned on me!
The need to be rid of this debt, to the exclusion of any consideration or reason became my main focus, with the idea that I would sell the house and use any realised equity, to make an outright cash purchase of another property. Settle the debt, realise equity: yes I was able to achieve. Buy another property outright, possible but not what I did!
Do you wonder where I am going with this story? Are you interested in what I did do?
Well, watch this space for 03 in which all shall be revealed…
Originally shared on my former blog, bitalks. Preserved here as part of the journey that shaped Life’s Riches.
Have a similar turning point or money story? I’d love to hear it; feel free to share in the comments or reply if this resonated. If you’re on your own journey toward financial clarity and purpose, why not join the Life’s Riches community? Subscribe here to follow along and get resources to support your next steps.