139-Ditch Your 9-5 Before the End of 2025 - Step 3: Build Your Freedom Fund

[00:00:00] Welcome back to the MaYapinion Podcast. This is a show where I share my opinions on entrepreneurship and leadership for women. I'm your host, Maya ler, and let's dive in to the new episode this week. Right now I'm talking about how to ditch your nine to five before 2025.

Even if you're listening to this in 20 26, 20 27, or well into the future, you can still ditch your nine to five. This is really just a six step process for you to leave. Maybe that corporate job, leave that grind behind, that you are no longer enjoying. It's no longer fulfilling you, and you've just reached a threshold maybe emotionally, personally, physically.

Financially, you feel like you can't grow, and that's why these six steps work, and they're incredibly awesome to help you on this journey. I use them personally. I refined them for you. So let's continue talking [00:01:00] about 'em. So we're on step three in this episode, and this is one of the most challenging steps to do, but it's also one of the most important steps to talk about.

So this is called Building Your Freedom Fund. Okay, so step three is build your freedom fund. Say that three times fast. Build your freedom fund. Build your freedom fund. Build your freedom fund. Okay, I did it. So this is really important coming out of step one where you're aligning and you're auditing your life.

And what you're looking to do. And then in step two, you're validating your business ideas. So you know, there's validity in what you wanna do. There's validity in the business, there's a need for it, there's a problem that you're solving. But before we take that big leap that all entrepreneurs have done.

It's really important that you build an actual freedom fund. There are other entrepreneurs out there that feel differently about [00:02:00] this. There are some that say, oh, just take the leap. You'll figure it out. But that's really unrealistic in my opinion, I think, especially for women that are like me. Maybe you're in your thirties, forties.

Fifties, sixties, wherever you are, you've got responsibilities. Maybe you have a mortgage, maybe you have kids, maybe you have a spouse, maybe you have dogs. I don't know. You have so many responsibilities. It's not really realistic to just say, let's throw caution to the wind and. Let's just go for this. I do want you to jump in and I do want you to go for it, but I also want you to be smart about it.

And there are some things that I did really well with this and there are some things that I, I learned from, but I definitely did have a freedom fund. And on today's episode I'm going to talk you through how to do this. As I mentioned on the previous two episodes, I also have an incredible. Workbook for you.

Okay? [00:03:00] It's a place for you to follow these steps with me. So if you're just listening along in the car or at work right now, awesome. But if you wanna take actionable steps with these, it'll be more impactful. And I have a really cool guide that will walk you through it as well. And it's everything I'm talking about.

So download it right below MaYapinion.com. It's there. So let's talk about it. What does it mean the Freedom Fund? Well, the first step within the step of the Freedom Fund is I want you to do, we're kind of going back to the audit process again, but now we're really pulling the veil back on our financials, and a lot of us feel uncomfortable doing this.

Of us are not into this, and this episode might feel a little Suzy Orman, Dave Ramsey ish. And look, I'm not here to give you financial advice. We all know where our finances are. Maybe we don't know where they are. The advice that I would give you today is we need to know where our finances are before we make a really big decision like this.

[00:04:00] So you'll see on the worksheet, and this is also, I'm gonna talk about this today. The first thing I want people to do, I want all of you to do when you're going through this step, is really take a deep look at your finances. How much is your mortgage payment? How much is your rent? How much is your car payment insurance, health insurance, things like that.

Remember in step one, we audited company benefits? Yeah. When you work for yourself. You don't get insurance through the company anymore, right? Until you build a company that's large enough, you need to be thinking about those things. So now we audited in step one, the benefits that we're getting from our job, but now we need to look at our out-of-pocket expenses and kind of merge those things together.

Like what things will I need to be paying for that I'm not quite paying for yet? And then what are the personal expenses that I pay for now? So my necessities. Transportation, car, groceries, utilities, all of these [00:05:00] things. And I want you to pull open your bank statements when you do this and really write this down.

And this is why I sound a little bit like Susie and Dave and them today because it's true. You need to go through and look at all of that. And if you are married, have a spouse, partner, and you're sharing. Finances you have, roommate, things like that. I would encourage you to do this exercise in conjunction with the person that you're sharing those expenses with, but really be honest with yourself.

Like how much money are you spending on Amazon every month? And all of those things, right? Write it all down, and I would rather you over project all of your finances than under project, because. There's some things sometimes when I first did this, jump myself, in my opinion, I think I undercut some things.

I think I wasn't super aware. One of the reasons for this, I think is because I was married and so our health insurance was through him. I wasn't thinking about all of these things. I want you to think about every single thing. [00:06:00] So even if it's something you're like, oh, well I don't normally pay that.

You definitely wanna think about it, like think about your cell phone expense, for example. Maybe you're going to want another business line. Go ahead and add that expense in there. I want you to over project, and these sound like little things, but they add up when you add potential spending in there, want your actual spend and then some potential that you could see as well.

Once you get through that audit on your actuals, I want you to, and then I also don't want you to do this. This is important to you, in my opinion, where you say something like, I have some friends that do this. I didn't do this 'cause I was used to working from home. Oh, well I won't be driving to work anymore, so I'm not gonna buy a Starbucks, so I'm not gonna put Starbucks.

Nope. I want you to put all your expenses on there and even over project them. Okay? So once you do that. Then you're gonna move to the next step. This is going to be a little more challenging for those of you who have not [00:07:00] actually launched a business yet, and you're still just estimating. This part is not just personal expenses.

This is personal business expenses, so expenses that you're gonna be spending on a business. That's why I said this. In my opinion, this is harder because you don't have the data yet. You're gonna be estimating, and that's okay with chat, GBT, Google researching. It's quite easy to figure these things out now, but I want you to really spend time on this.

Think about all the things that your business will need. For example, going to use someone who's going to create an online coaching business. If you're gonna create an online coaching business, you're going to be paying for a URL and pay for a website. You are gonna need to buy that domain. That's a cost.

You're gonna have to host that domain. That's a cost you will likely have to file an LLC. How much does that costing your state to do? It's not super expensive, but [00:08:00] all these things start to add up. Do you have a logo designed? Do you have your workbooks designed? Do you have, so start thinking about these costs and allocating that.

What is it gonna cost to host things every month? Social media. Do you need someone to help you with your social media or are you able to take that on yourself in the beginning? What about the legal aspect of it? Do you need someone to help you with some legal things? Like do you need someone, for example, do you need someone to write up your contracts to work with clients?

What would that look like? What does that cost going to look like? Do you need to trademark? Do you just love your brand name so much, which I highly recommend trademarking it. I don't recommend trademarking it at day. Zero, which is where we're at right now in this step. But it is something to think about down the pike.

What is that going to look like? Think about all of the things that your business will cost. Now, if you are, we're talking about a coaching business, there's not physical product typically in the beginning for something like that. If you have a business where you're [00:09:00] selling. Items, are you going to produce those items and host them in your house first?

Or are you going to pay for a warehouse? Are you going to pay for a storage unit? I don't want you paying for a 10,000 square foot warehouse before you actually figure out if this product is going to work. Right? We need to have samples. We need to make sure it's working like we talked about in our last step, validating our, our business idea.

But think about these things. Everything in the beginning, and that's why I have this step here in building Your Freedom Fund. It's not just about building up enough expenses, which we'll talk about in just a moment. It's about what money is going out right now for me, and then what money could potentially be going out for my business.

Again, I want you to over exhaust that. Like I didn't think about how I was gonna have to have a storage unit, which seems so silly. I didn't think about that. I've been in the event space for 16, 17 years now, but no kidding. I'm gonna have to store things. These are just things that [00:10:00] if I had actually sat down with a worksheet like this and actually walked through these steps, this would've come to mind for me.

Paying contractors to work for me for certain things, like all of that was going to grow and evolve. So really important that we think about that. Okay, so monthly. Personal expenses, even some annual expenses, right? All those things we paid for, a car, house, food, fun, all of those things. Then your personal business expenses, and this for a lot of you, is just going to be projected and estimated because you don't quite know yet.

I'd rather you use like a chat GPT, ask what all expenses , could be there, Google it, everything that you know from the business that you've been in so far, use all your resources to project that. Then you need to look at all of that and see if you can support that. Okay. A lot of us cannot right away, which is why it's important that we have our runway plan [00:11:00] and why we build our freedom Fund.

A freedom fund is three to six months. This is again, my Susie and Dave moment, three to six months of being able to cover expenses without anything coming in. Now I say that to also say you don't want to leave your corporate gig or your nine to five, or your hustle, whatever you're doing before you have money coming in.

That's why starting this as a side hustle or contractually like I did doing contract work. Works really well because you're proving your concept. You're proving the need, like we talked about in step two. You're proving that there's a reason for your business and your business is valid, your business idea, and then it helps you create that runway so you're putting aside , your corporate money that you're making, and you're also putting aside your money that you're making from your side hustle.

So maybe [00:12:00] that's funding your three to six month runway, but. However you're doing it or how, however you're allocating those expenses, it's important to have this written out so that you know what all your personal out is going to be. Every month personal expenses are going out, and then also you're having a new line item, your business expenses going out.

So it's really important that you know both. I don't want you to just quit your nine to five when you secure one client and you prove your idea. I don't want you to quit your nine to five when you have enough expenses there to pay your mortgage for one month. I know those are exciting milestones, but you have to feel there.

There's this moment where you feel like, okay, it's is scary, but I see money in the account. I can cover for three to six months, and I know business is starting to come in. That is a moment when you know you can leap. It's always going to be scary. [00:13:00] It's always going to be a challenge to look and say, oh my gosh, but I don't have the security of a nine to five.

The reality is, and something I had to realize, a nine to five or a corporate job is not secure either. It's not. It's not your business. It's not your company. They could let you go tomorrow. We see layoffs every single day, especially in this economy, especially in this climate, especially with everything going on.

But I want you to be smart about how you shift that. And I want you to be smart about taking advantage of everything you've learned at your current job and your current nine to five, your current corporate job, and earning an income and being fair to the company while also starting to build something else.

And building your freedom fund is a part of that. How you are shifting money, how you're saving money. And it's really important that those two come together and there's a good marriage. In your leap when you leave, and also as you're building things, you [00:14:00] wanna be fair to the job that you're working right now, but you also wanna be fair to yourself when you're building something, and this is really how you do it.

Sitting down and truly looking at all your expenses and also the future, and projecting how fast are you acquiring clients. How difficult is it for you to acquire clients? Another thing you should be looking at with expenses is, is it costing you money to acquire clients? Like are you having to go to networking events to acquire them?

Are you having to go on trips? Are you having to go and visit these clients? Or if you are, if you have a physical product, which is different, what does that cost? Are you spending marketing dollars, Facebook ads, campaigns? What does that cost look like? That's in your business cost. That's not just a a side fee that we're not thinking about.

We're thinking about all of these things. It's really important that every single thing you could be spending or you're [00:15:00] already spending, if your business is past ideation and it's actually happening, is accounted for. And then some, I wanna see some padding in there when you're doing this exercise. Just a few reminders or don'ts in my opinion.

Don't do these things, okay? Don't quit. Just because you're burnt out and you have $0 behind you, don't do that. It will not work. Do not rely on credit cards or cash advances to float your business. That's not the same thing as getting a business loan. We'll talk about that later as we evolve in the series that we're not there yet.

Okay? So don't rely on credit cards, and if you absolutely are miserable in your nine to five, which is probably why you're listening to this series and why you're connecting with me, it's not going to get better. Some days will be better, some days will be easier, but you're never going to feel the way that I want you to feel about what you're doing.

So just remember that. Just [00:16:00] remember. It's not, you're not happy now. You're not gonna be happy later. So these are steps to help you get there. Don't treat your freedom fund either as an emergency fund. So what I mean by that is you should have an emergency. I'm not a financial advisor. This is just like personal experience, your personal expenses that you have, and then that's why we do this breakdown of personal expenses.

Potential business or business expenses, those are separated. So in your personal expenses, you need to also have, you need to have that all set aside, three to six months. Personal expenses. I wanna see an emergency fund for you as well. Same with business. Business though, in the beginning, I will tell you, this is my opinion.

Some people will argue against me with this, but with this type of business, you don't necessarily need like an emergency fund for business in the beginning. You don't. Now, if you have a physical product or you're further along. But if you're, you're at a coaching business, you don't need an e an emergency fund [00:17:00] for that.

You need your freedom fund. So I wanna see three to six months where you can cover your own expenses. And I wanna see some money in the bank for your business. They are separate, by the way. Okay. They are separate. Um, just as we continue talking about different tactical things that we need to do. To move forward with our business.

We'll talk about opening up those things. What to do. We just talked about cost for LLC. Think about the cost for having a bank account, because there are minimums that you have to have. So this should all be in your budgeting. Okay? So remember, three to six months is got to be there. You know the offer that you're building or the offer that you're gonna build next.

Okay? That's another big thing. You are already generating some kind of income. I don't want you to leave your job unless you're already generating some kind of income. So remember when I shared my story, many episodes back and my sister Lily interviewed me. I had signed on enough contractual clients during the pandemic to know I [00:18:00] could pay my bills, and that's when I felt that this is the other part of it.

I felt that anxiety relief. It was still a pay cut. I was not gonna be making what I was making in corporate America, but I knew it was enough to pay my bills. I had enough money set aside as well, and it was also gonna free up my time so that I can continue to build. So that was my sweet spot. So you have to really be real about yourself and what your sweet spot is there too.

Okay? You've gotta have all of your basic needs met and you've gotta have all of this kind of logistical stuff in place so that you can transition beautifully, which is what we're doing in these six steps. Feeling calm about it and at peace with it as well is a really, really important part of it. And although I felt nervous, I knew it was time, I knew it was, I knew that was my sign.

I had enough each month to pay the bills, put a little money away, and put more towards client acquisition, and [00:19:00] also towards what I was trying to achieve with podcasting. And some of the other aspects of my business wasn't what I had before, but it was enough. The risk. That was my moment. That was my moment to leap.

That's when I knew, and I could feel it could really feel it. So it's a mixture of nervous, but also a mixture of knowing as well. So take some time, really take some time. Building Your Freedom Fund. Building your freedom fund, I think is so important, especially for my analytical folks out there that really overthink things and think through things.

This is important. This is gonna give you that calmness so you feel like you can take the leap. Don't forget to download this guide MaYapinion.com. You can download this guide. We can go through it together. We're only on step three. Come back next week for our next episode for step four. Excited to go through that with you as we continue down building your business and [00:20:00] helping you launch and helping you leave your nine to five before 2025 ends or whenever you're listening to this episode.

And don't forget to like, subscribe and share our podcast and also follow me at Maya Roffler and at MaYapinion Podcast on all major social media platforms. On the next episode.