Check out this Quote!!

"Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, and fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won't feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It's not just in some of us; it's in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others."

—Marianne Williamson

An excerpted from A Return to Love: Reflections on the Principles of A Course in Miracles

Take this in and enjoy it. It is one of my favorite quotes, one which I work on each day.

Dare to Question!!

Question!! Take a few steps back and question. That's what my all time favorite book Your Money or Your Life, a gift from my dad who also enjoyed the read, had me do. This fabulous book asked me what would you do if you had enough money each month to live on? Basically are you happy with your current job/life or are you surviving/existing?

I have to say that I like my life to be as simple as possible. Now, I am still high maintenance (and my dad says that I am the worst kind...simple yet very high maintenance). It would be safe to say that I have high expectations. I enjoy my little life here in Ireland with my little daughter, our little house and our little friends. We do not drive a car and this makes me very happy. The footprint we make on the earth is something I think about often. I am happy with our enough.

What is your enough? Every one's enough is very different. But finding your enough is pure happiness, it's freedom really. Your know where to head, where to strive for. You have defined your compass and no one else can change this. It's fabulous really.

Today Question in a good way. Find out how you are living and find your truth & your happiness. Your enough.

Take a look at Your Money or Your Life. I guarantee that it will become a reference tool in your life.

Suze Orman's Twelve Steps

Now without starting with the nitty-gritty, I want to introduce to one of my many money gurus I follow and, you guessed it, a main contributor in O and on the Oprah show. I found these steps while searching through Oprah's website and feel like Suze's Twelve Steps to Wealth are a good place to start.

I would like to take the time now to talk about why a person would consider to be wealthy. Wealth comes in many different forms, not only monetary wealth. And as always wealth is totally measured by our own definition. We choose to have abundant lives of wealth, love and joy...no one else chooses this for us. With wealth we are making the right choices in our lives and are able to give back to our communities. We are living authentic lives!!

For me basically, when I got to a stage where I had a two year-old child to take care of, rent to pay, living on my own in a country thousands of miles away from the only home I had known and the rain was pouring down as I waited for the bus to come...I had to make a choice. I could let all of this get to me, stress out and feel like the victim here or get over it and figure out a way that I would never get to this stage in my life ever again.

So each person that I have met since has brought me new ideas and books that have led to new ideas and inspirations. Here is one of Oprah's people that I would like to share with you. Enjoy and take a good look at the Twelve Steps Suze Orman has to offer. Tell me what you think. We can have a coffee & discuss our wealthy topic (this all said with a very New York accent :-).


Suze Orman's Twelve Steps to Wealth

Step One: Face Your Fears

Step Two: Make a Commitment to Yourself

Step Three: Getting Out of Debt

Step Four: Saving for the Future

Step Five: Getting What You Deserve

Step Six: Being Responsible to Others

Step Seven: Buying a Home

Step Eight: Insuring Your-Well Being

Step Nine: Saving for College

Step Ten: Preparing for Old Age

Step Eleven: Investing in the Market

Step Twelve: Giving

Enjoy!!

What I have learned. or What has Anne learned?

I want to give y'all a little background into why and how I have come up with this personal goal of mine...so sit back and take it in...

What have I learned actually, why have I come to this personal goal?

Well thanks to all of my many experiences through raising my child, moving to a new country and many issues of Oprah's Magazine O I have learned and heard of my different ideas/beliefs.

*Everything is changeable/flexible. I am consistantly flexible.

*Each of us creates our world through our thoughts and feelings
...the Law of Attraction.

*As parents it is up to us to expect only of ourselves and not of our children.

*Take care of our ownselves first, only then will we be the best to help others out.

*When people talk, all they want is for us to listen.

*Anytime we judge other people we are simply reflecting our own insecurities.
We can only change ourselves.

*Trust our dreams will work out.
Expect only that their manifestation will reveal in ways we never imagined.

*Freedom is up to you.

*We are not defined by what we own or have surrounding us.
What's the quote (just Wikied it) "To thine own self be true..." William Shakespeare.
I mean I know we can insure all that we have bought and can spend a whole load of time taking care of our stuff, but does it really define us? If it all went away tomorrow, your head, family and friends would be who you live with.

I am sure that I have many other ideas I have learned, but through some of these here, I have been able to come to my own life and be happy with what I have created for myself and my daughter. I used to be a vicim of my life worrying how people in my life would react or how someone might help me or not help me. Basically I was giving this person the power instead of taking control of my own life.

We attach ourselves to our feelings and thoughts, and it is our decision over the length of time we choose to feel these thoughts; happy or unhappy they may be.

Honestly all of these ideas are not easy for me to live by, I make mistakes daily. The freedom comes from knowing that I am not perfect, that I will always be learning. When I mess up, for me the key is to recognize this, forgive myself and move forward.

Today enjoy some of my thoughts and ideas (think, think about it:-). I will be getting more specific with why I want to become financially independent. A great book that helped me see this is Your Money or Your Life by Joe Dominguez and Vicki Robin. The How? this is all going to happen is another reason this Blog exists...y'all get to follow and see how it happens!! Lucky you.

Take Care, Anne

Welcome All...

Hey there, this is new and exciting for me. I have spent the past few years raising my 5 year-old daughter and have created a situation where we are able to spend as much time with one another as possible. We have lived simply and authentically. We are both well looked after by one another and not by our surrounding material items...and believe you and me, this took a long time to learn and appreciate. I was amazed at how difficult it was for me to feel like a good parent because I was not buying my child each and every new toy she wanted. Advertising, the consumer culture and social expectations are such that the more you give your child, the better a parent you are. After a couple of Christmases, birthdays and learning to live on very little money, I learned that there is nothing better than time. Time for one another. Time for listening. & Time for learning.

Because of all the time we spent together, I have learned to be a better parent, person and creator in my life. So that's what this Blog is all about. My thoughts and ideas over the past five years and new ideas to come. How fun!! And this idea of retiring, or shall I say becoming financially independent, is another way of finding more time to spend with family and friends. Getting out of the social race of having the most stuff to learning and enjoying what really matters to all of us...TIME.