The Tool That Transformed My Finances

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THINK

“A budget is telling your money where to go instead of wondering where it went.”
Dave Ramsey

This week I’m going to share a Tool that transformed my finances. By using this simple tool, I turned from someone in debt, financially unaware and lost, into someone who finally understood their finances and how to improve them.

I’ve been asked, “If you had to give one piece of advice to help people manage their money, what would it be?”

My answer is this Tool.

In this post, I’m going to share:

What the f*cking Tool is I keep banging on about
How I used it (£)
The impact it had on me (££)
The impact it had on my family and coaching clients (£££)
How it accelerates your path to Financial Freedom

In last week’s Newsletter, I shared how I met Lou, abused alcohol and wasted so much money in my 20s.

Meeting Lou sparked my desire to improve my financial situation. Not in anything she said. I just knew that I was dating someone ‘above my station’, which was confirmed by EVERY ONE of my friends.

If I had any hope of keeping a girl like her interested, I felt like I needed to be a man of value.

The problem was, I wasn’t.

I was in debt to my eyeballs, I had a low-paying job (£14,000 a year) and no idea how to turn things around.

Sometimes, you need to hit a real low point to instigate change.

I was ready.

So, I started researching personal finance and how to become debt-free so I could become the man I wanted to be.

I stumbled across Martin Lewis’s website. His advice had a massive impact on me and my finances.

He introduced me to the Tool.

The Fool, The Tool and Going Back to School

The ‘Money Saving Expert’ is exactly that. Martin and his team do a wonderful job of educating consumers on how to save money. He has guides on every consumer expense, and how to reduce what you pay, usually without too much effort.

His advice is simple and effective. I’d never thought of doing this stuff.

I felt like a fool. What I had been doing this whole time?!

I worked through his website during lunch breaks, evenings and weekends. It was like going back to school – only good and useful.

I started putting his advice into action and I saw immediate results.

As a General Rule of Thumb:

The more you’ve hidden away from your finances, the longer you’ve stayed with the same providers, the less you’ve negotiated, the more debt you have…

The more potential the Tool has for you!

Reducing expenses is the best place to start to turn around your finances.

Why?

You can save money INSTANTLY.
You (largely) control how much you spend.
Making more money can have a greater impact on your disposable income, but it takes more time, effort and skill.

There’s another reason we don’t start with ‘making more’…

Many people struggle to get their heads around this basic premise:

It’s not what you earn, but what you save and invest that really matters

Your income isn’t the main driver you think it is.

You can earn lots of money and still be broke.

You can earn £300,000 a year, but if you spend £300,000 or more, you’re not rich. You have to keep working to maintain your lavish lifestyle. If you love your job, you’re in a wonderful spot. Sadly, many people in this position have highly stressful jobs, little free time and feel ‘trapped’ by their lifestyle.
Conversely, you can earn £30,000 a year, and if you save and invest £20,000 of it (like I was able to do). You’ve just bought 2 years of freedom. If you do that for a decade, that’s a LOT of freedom.

Here’s the BIG personal finance question that Martin proposes, which will determine how well you handle your money…

Q. Do you spend more than you earn?

In my experience:

Most people don’t know.
Some people are deluded.
Few people know.

Where are you?

This poses a natural follow-up question…

Q. How do you find out?

The answer = the Tool.

What’s the F*cking Tool Already?

The simple and effective answer to find out if you spend more than you earn is to create a budget.

The Tool = A Budget

Note all the pennies coming in over a year
Note all the pennies going out over a year
Calculate the difference

Wait! Where are you going?! Don’t leave! 🛑

I’ll be straight with you, this solution is simple and effective, but it seems like a big overwhelming and boring task.

It doesn’t have to be.

So, let me make it more seductive…

Did it work?

OK, scrap that. How about this…

I helped my dad create a budget for the first time. It was as fun as pulling teeth. I don’t remember the specifics BUT the end result landed him saving over £1,000 a month. He couldn’t believe it! That’s over a £12,000 pay rise.
My first coaching client managed to save £1,082.62 a month (specifics noted!). He was delighted with saving an additional £12,991.44 a year, and here’s the kicker – He barely changed his lifestyle.

Would you be willing to work 4-8 hours for £12,000-13,000?

That could be on offer for you.

I can’t guarantee you’ll get the same results, but even if we’re being ultra-conservative, and you’re only able to save 10% of that amount…

Would you be willing to work 4-8 hours for £1,200-£1,300?

What are you getting paid each day today?

For most people, creating a budget for the first time is the biggest payday of their lives.

Have you cashed in yet?

The Transformational Power of The Tool

Following Martin’s advice, I created a Budget and calculated my disposable income.

It totally transformed my finances. 🤯

I went from being financially unaware, living paycheck to paycheck, to being fully aware of my shit financial position and wanting to immediately improve it.

I can’t remember the specifics, but when I input my data into the Tool, my disposable income was around £100 /month.

I felt pathetic.

£100 /month x 50 years (30 to 80) = £60,000

“Great, when I’m almost dead, I can afford a house deposit.”

This wasn’t a fun discovery, but I needed it. It’s like an overweight person stepping on the scales for the first time in years. It isn’t easy but…

Awareness is the first step towards victory.

Once you see a weight on the scales that makes you feel shame or embarrassment, you’re motivated to do something about it.

Well, that’s the way I felt about my finances. So, thanks to the Tool, I got to work!

I worked through Martin Lewis’s website and completed every consumer guide I could find in an attempt to create more disposable income.

I used the extra cash each month to pay down my debt and before I knew it, I was debt-free and my disposable income had increased to around £600 /month.

I was rich!

I wasn’t, obviously, but the Tool had created a brand new money problem for me…

What do I do with this money? 🤔

Stumbling Into FIRE

After Googling ‘What to do with spare cash?’ and ‘How to invest for beginners?’, I stumbled upon the FIRE movement.

FIRE = Financial Independence Retire Early

The premise is simple. You can become financially independent very quickly by adopting a frugal lifestyle, saving a high percentage of income, and investing wisely.

You build your investment pot up to the point it covers your living expenses. Freeing you up to spend your time how you wish.

The ‘frugal’ part puts most people off but let me explain why it’s so important:

Q. Do you know what impact reducing your expenses by £13,000 /year would have on your financial freedom?

A. Spending £13,000 /year less = £325,000 LESS in your retirement portfolio! 🤯

This is why I bang on about reducing expenses.

If you want to know how much you need to become financially free, you need to create a Budget (The Tool) to work out your current living expenses.

Once you know your annual living expenses, you multiply that number by 25.

Spend £20,000 /year = £500,000 Portfolio
Spend £40,000 /year = £1,000,000 Portfolio

[CUE FREAKOUT!]

One important thing to consider before you start freaking out about HOW you’re going to save £1 million, is that you don’t need to save a million to get a million.

“¿Qué?”

Invest in the stock market and let compound interest help you out.

Example:

If you invested £2,000 /year from age 18-25 (£16,000 total), and you got 10% returns (in line with historical returns), and stopped. At 65, your portfolio would be worth £1,138,675.52.

I can hear the ‘But Parade’ now…

“But I’m not 25”

“But I can’t save £2,000 /year”

”But I don’t want to wait until I’m 65”

It’s OK.

It’s never too late to start, save what you can, work on it over time and retire when you want.

And I’ve got something that can help.

Creating My Own Tool

Creating a budget, reducing my expenses, increasing spare cash, destroying debt, learning about compound interest and investing have all contributed to me doing a complete 180 on my finances and becoming financially free.

It’s had such a profound impact on me and I want you to experience the same.

So, I’ve created a Tool which helps you with all of that.

After months of dicking around on spreadsheets, I’m proud to finally introduce the ‘Financial Freedom Planner’. 🚀

Say goodbye to financial stress, take back control of your money, and work towards financial freedom with a clear plan.

The ‘Financial Freedom Planner’ offers:

Simplified budgeting
Tips on how to reduce expenses
Increase disposable income
A Net Worth Calculator
My ‘5 Bucket Budgeting System’
The ‘Financial Freedom Planner’
An Investing Forecast

It demonstrates that anyone can become financially free. You don’t have to be special (I’m not). You just have to be willing to face your reality, course correct and head in the right direction.

There’s a cost to freedom. It isn’t free.

It’ll cost you time and effort but I promise you it’s worth the effort.

I’m launching the ‘Financial Freedom Planner’ tomorrow at £9.99 +VAT, 50% off for 7 days. After that, it’ll go to its full list price of £19.99 +VAT.

If you’re interested in taking advantage of the 50% discount and getting stuck into it right now, you can buy it HERE on Etsy.

Win £250

This is my first official product launch for the Huwsview brand.

I’m so excited to see what you think of it, how much money it’ll save you each year, how quickly you’ll become debt-free or your new timescales for Financial Freedom.

I’m offering a free 1-hour coaching call (worth £250) for the best Etsy review.

The Best = Most detailed review on how it’s helped them

To qualify for the draw:

Buy the ‘Financial Freedom Planner’ from the Etsy
Leave an honest review on Etsy before Monday 27th November 2023.
Take a screenshot of your review or forward me the link to the review.
And that’s it!

Freedom is about using all of the tools at your disposal to maximise your precious opportunity.

You don’t need my ‘Financial Freedom Planner’ to become financially free, but I believe it’ll save you a lot of time and effort in getting there.

I wish you the very best of luck either way! 🚀

Reflect and share this with someone.

ASK

Take a moment to consider the following:

“Do you spend more than you earn?”

“Would you like to increase your spare cash each month?”

“Do you know when you’ll currently become financially free?”

“Would you like to find out?”

Write down what comes to mind.

TRY

Create a budget and calculate your Financial Freedom date.

You don’t need my ‘Financial Freedom Planner’ to do that, it’ll just help you get there faster.

Record ALL of your pennies coming in over a year (EG. £30,000)
Record ALL of your pennies going out over a year (EG. £20,000)
- Note the difference = Disposable income (£10,000)
Financial Freedom Number = Multiple your annual expenses by 25 (£20k x 25 = £500,000)
- Minus the size of your current investment portfolio from the Financial Freedom Number (£50k currently invested minus £500k = £450k left to Financial Freedom)
Put your annual disposable income (£10k) into a compound interest calculator at 10% returns (representing a global index tracker) and see how many years it’ll take you to reach your Financial Freedom number.

Are you happy with that timeframe?

If not, it’s time to get busy and accelerate your path to freedom.

HIT REPLY and tell me if you buy the ‘Financial Freedom Planner’. I’d like to personally thank you for your support. 🙏

I read and reply to every email, and remember, I’m rooting for you.

Remember: Little by little, a little becomes a lot.

Reply to this email and share how it went for you. Let me know if you’d prefer to remain anonymous.

SHARE this with someone who wants to transform their finances.

SHARE your feedback (goor or bad!) on the ‘Financial Freedom Planner‘.

SHARE your love for ‘Sexy Budgets’. 😍

Lead from the front and inspire others to follow.

Have an awesome week!

Huw