Are you waiting for a lottery win or taking control of your own destiny?

Since having children I’ve really thought about my future a lot.  Yes, I do believe that we need to live in the moment and not dwell on the past or worry about the future, but I do also think we should plan for the future somewhat.  After all, I don’t want to get to 70 years old, if I’m lucky enough to make it, and not have enough money for retirement or to treat my children every so often.  I’d also like to be mortgage free way before this and travel more. 

Whilst many people seem to live their lives waiting for a win on the Euromillions lottery results, I’m a big believer of taking control of your own destiny.  Yes I do play the lottery for fun, or even bet on it sometimes, as you do have to be in it to win it, but I won’t rest all my hopes and dreams on scooping a big win. 

I think it’s better to take control of your own life and do what makes you happy.  You can’t rely on anyone else to do it for you.  You need to work out what makes you content and just go for it!  Too many people are miserable in their jobs every single day.  Life is too short.  If you’re not happy, do something about it.

Once you’ve got the now sorted, then you can start to think ahead and start planning for your life to go that way.

Here are the things I’m aiming for in the future and how I’m shaping my life now to get me there:

 

Be as healthy as possible

It’s important to me to be as healthy now as possible, so I’m healthy in the future.  I want a fit and active retirement without many of the pains and complaints the elderly suffer with.  A lot of these may be able to be prevented through healthier lifestyle choices. 
I eat more than the five a day of fruit and veg each day.  I usually have my ‘5’ in the morning and plenty more throughout the day.  I think the 5 a day is the bare minimum we should eat each day.  Getting the 5 isn’t enough to consider you healthy.  I used to think I was healthy as I got my 5 each day in my early twenties, but then I drank alcohol each day, smoked 20 cigarettes and ate junk food.  That’s not a healthy lifestyle!
This year I quit refined sugar as I believe it is a slow poison causing many diseases and putting the liver under unnecessary strain every day.  I avoid processed foods and chemicals.  I prefer a natural wholefood diet.  The only bad thing I regularly have is chippy chips on a Friday night.  A portion of chippy chips and I make some refined sugar free beans to go with them which I quickly heat up at home.
I don’t drink alcohol.  I don’t smoke.
I stay active every day.  I go to the gym, take a long walk or do an online exercise video - sometimes all three of these, sometimes just one.  Exercise videos are free and in abundance on YouTube.  There’s no excuse.
I hope that if I take care of myself now, nurture and nourish my body correctly, then when I’m old I won’t have as many aches, pains and complaints.  Hopefully I can steer clear of disease too and enjoy being old.

Read where I get my inspiration from here:
Your ultimate inspirational guide to being truly healthy

Travelling

It’s also important to me to remain in good health as I plan to travel when I’m older.  I never travelled as a youngster and if I was to have any regrets, then that is it.  I wasn’t very adventurous as an eighteen year old and was quite happy to live with my boyfriend at that time and then go on to get into stacks of debt through a stupid shopping addiction!  As I didn’t want to travel I used to stupidly think it didn’t matter if I bought what I wanted and got into debt as I’ll always be here to pay it back. What an immature and naïve mind-set!
As I grew older and met a lot of new people, including many who had travelled the world, I realised how much I was missing out on and that in fact I did want to see all these wonderful places.
Now, in my 30s, I realise life is short and it’s already speeding by.  I believe we are only here once and this is our time.  The Earth is a beautiful place and I want to see as much of its beauty in person as I can.  I now have a great desire to travel and experience as many incredible places as I can.
I always say to Ben, we’ll be travellers when we retire!  I always joke (but mean it half seriously) that we’ll sell our home once the kids move out, buy a RV and travel.  He replies saying perhaps or we can at least go on a few good holidays a year.
In order to do this and to have plenty of holidays/travelling opportunities we need to be in good health in our 60s/70s and also have enough money in the bank.

Grow my blog and business

To ensure our health is great by eating plenty of organic foods and to have enough money for travelling and retirement, we need to make enough money and start saving now.  This means earning as much as possible and putting away as much as possible each month.
Ben works very hard at his job and is working up the ladder.  He’s in management and has the passion and desire to progress further.  We are both inspired by our children and our future plans which give us the motivation to succeed.
As I work for myself, mainly as a full time blogger, I hope I can maintain and potentially increase my income through blogging, selling online and matched betting.
At the moment Reuben is only two.  If I were to work full time employed, we would need full time childcare and holiday care for Bella.  The cost of this means we’d be left with very little.  I make a lot more working for myself than if I got a full time job.  I also make more working for myself now than in the three part time jobs I’ve had since becoming a mother.  For one of them I worked 6pm-12am four times a week and for another I started work at 5am six mornings per week so I could finish before Ben went to work.  Luckily I was able to grow my blog and business in all my spare time around this and I now earn more than any of these minimum wage part time jobs could pay me.
If my blog and business do ever die a death, which I pray won’t happen, I’d not question getting a job around Ben’s work again.  I’d rather not have money worries and be able to save, so I’d do whatever it takes.
My plan for now though is to continue doing what I’m doing and hopefully grow my income if I can.

Setting up a holiday business

I realise since working for myself that a diverse income is crucial to succeed. It’s good to have a few income streams to fall back on to if one is low for the month.  Blogging is my main income, but I also do matched betting, mystery shopping, online selling and eBay reselling to boost my income every month.  I’m trying to increase my reselling at the moment so it provides more income.
Renting out a room or property is a great way to provide a regular income with little output, once it’s set up.  Ben’s brother runs a holiday cottage and says it’s the easiest business he’s ever ran.  I’ve watched several TV shows like 'To B&B the Best' or something like that which say making a rental income is one of the best ways to make extra cash.
I believe it.
I also think it would be fun.  My idea is to build a garden room of some sort in our garden and to rent it out on Air BnB.  Ben is keen to build this as he loves building.  At the moment he’s building himself a workshop, so this is good practice.  There’s a similar structure in the town next to us in someone’s garden and it’s always fully booked.  I really believe we can make around £10000 a year from rental income if we go ahead.

Living by the sea in the countryside

The ultimate dream would be to expand this idea further.  To have a home with a little land where we can build a few self-catering lodges to rent out.  This would provide us with a sustainable income and we can both work on following our dreams in the day time.  I can blog and Ben can make furniture in his workshop.
I love the sea.  I love the fresh air.  I feel like I can breathe by the sea.  I’m not so in to touristy seaside’s, so I’d love to find a fairly quiet beach in the countryside where we can set this business up.  I’ve only lived in the same county so it would be quite an adventure for me to move somewhere else one day.
Ben’s grandparents lived in Cornwall so he has fond memories there, so we think one day we’d like to try it and it ties in nicely with our future business idea.

Final word

This is why I do what I do now.  It’s why I’m obsessed with my blog and making money now, even when the children are small.  I feel like time is escaping me and I should have started saving money a lot younger.  I never used to think about investing in my future when in my twenties.  It wasn’t a priority to me.  Now I’m obsessed with investing in my health and future so I can hopefully lead a happy, healthy fruitful life and leave something behind for my children.