9 Inspirational Real-Life Stories Of Finding Your Cash Surplus

When it comes to MindShift.money’s Financially Fit Bootcamp, everyone has a different story. Members come from different backgrounds, some with careers in money, some who’ve struggled with money their entire lives and still others who are doing okay but want to do better.

We asked some of our Certified Financially Fit Bootcamp Coaches how finding their Cash Surplus helped them take charge of their money rather than letting it take charge of them. Here are their stories:

Everyone Is Different

For some, like Specialist Susan Whelan, money was to be avoided. When she received a bank statement or a credit card bill, she often left the envelope unopened because she knew it was only ever bad news.

“My relationship with money was a disaster,” Susan said. “Money was more like a monster than a friend.”

Financially Fit Bootcamp and finding her Cash Surplus provided Susan with a structure to control where her finances went. Once she defined Financial Freedom for herself, her outlook toward money shifted from one of fear to one of empowerment.

Wendy Priester, an accountant, on the other deals with money on a daily basis, but she admits she wasn’t always paying attention to her own finances.

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“I needed to set up boundaries for myself and guidelines,” Wendy said, “so that I was still setting aside money for those big future expenses and things that were important to me and for my future self, but that I was still allowing myself to have a portion of my income to go have fun and enjoy life along the way.”

Finding her Cash Surplus, seeing where she started, and having an end goal in mind has taken the weight off Wendy’s shoulders so she can focus on working toward Financial Freedom.

Then there’s Andrew Wheatley who wishes he had started his journey toward Financial Freedom sooner. But he’s glad he’s doing it now. Before starting Financially Fit Bootcamp, he had this nagging feeling something needed to change financially. He just didn’t know what. Now that he’s found his surplus and determined his family’s path to Financial Freedom, money is no longer a stressor for him.

“The best time to plant a tree is twenty years ago, and I didn’t plant that tree” he said. “But the second best time is now. Me and my family have planted that tree now. The feeling of relief and satisfaction and feeling really proud of ourselves and in control of our money is just immeasurable. It’s really changed the way the we approach so many other parts of our life now that we’re just not worried about money. It’s just not longer a stress in our life anymore. ”

Why Finding Your Surplus Matters

Before working through the Money Planner, many Financially Fit Bootcamp participants find they need to work through a lot of fear and Money Stress. For some, this is one of the first times they’ve sat down to see where their money is going. The process can induce a lot of anxiety. But in every instance, attacking those money fears head-on is rewarding.

Rachelle Hogben considered herself an absent-minded spender. So when she worked through the Money Planner and saw how much she was wasting, it was “jaw-dropping.” Once she had real clarity about her finances, she took control and decided where to spend her money instead of letting it go haphazardly.

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“It seemed like a huge mountain to conquer at the start,” Rachelle said, “but each time I got a little further through, the excitement of finding all this extra money and gaining control pushed me to dig deeper.”

For Mindshift.money Specialist Pete Steadman, finding his surplus revealed two investment properties were actually costing him money. Finding his surplus was all about finding ways to cut back on spending. Eventually it changed his entire outlook toward money.

“I started to evaluate every purchase on a scale of necessity. Is this something I need right now, something I will need, just at a later date, or just really a desire. Prior to working through the Financially Fit Bootcamp, I had really poor money habits and managed to find something to spend my money on. This program changed my relationship with money.”

How To Find Your Cash Surplus, From People Who Have Found Theirs

When it comes to finding your Cash Surplus, in the words of Certified Financially Fit Bootcamp Coach Larry Malone, you need “perseverance and grit.”

Larry’s own financial situation prior to Financially Fit Bootcamp was a vicious cycle of paying off debt but then getting into more debt. He thought the only way to achieve Financial Freedom was to increase his income, so he worked two or three jobs at times.

Unfortunately, his spending always rose to meet any increase in income. Working through the Money Planner revealed he was living above his means. For Larry, finding his surplus meant buckling down and reining in his spending so he could create a Cash Surplus.

“The focus should be Paying Yourself First, Living Within Your Means, deciding on what’s important and on what you want to spend your money on,” Larry said. “Once this is done, you will identify a surplus. I mean, it’s natural. When you look at things that are most important, you can cut out a lot of frivolous stuff.”

Linda Emslie and her husband had been doing the same thing financially for a decade. Their financial planner said they were doing great, but Linda’s intuition said otherwise. When they learned about MindShift.money, they worked on the Money Planner in Financially Fit Bootcamp. For them, finding their surplus was all about finding ways they could do better.

For instance, their spending wasn’t out of control, but Linda realized she needed to to bring in more income through her business. Once she started doing that, their family found a Cash Surplus that put them on the path to Financial Freedom.

“Finding the surplus in the very first instance wasn’t actually about finding a monetary surplus,” Linda said, “it was actually about identifying the areas where we could do better, the areas where we could still have choice about where our money was spent, and make different choices about how that money was spent, and also identifying areas where we could look to increase some of our income, some of the changes we could do. One of the biggest areas of change is in my own business itself, increasing the income from my business to improve our Freedom Number.”

The End of The Story Is The Same: Peace of Mind

No matter what your journey looks like, the end result will be satisfaction, a plan for the future and peace of mind. For Melinda Smylie, her surplus combined with account automation meant she was freed up time to spend with her family.

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“I’ve got a really young family,” Melinda said. “Life’s quite busy for us. We both work a lot of hours, and I’ve got a growing business. I didn’t want to lose a lot of the time that I was giving to getting away from some of the money stresses when I could be out having fun with my kids. The process taught me some great things about automation, about putting aside money for some of life’s things that just crop up from time to time, and really just gave me peace of mind.”

For Andrew Woodard, sitting down with the Money Planner meant he was no longer in the dark about his finances. He had new clarity which he found empowering and enlightening.

“I had been living a bit in the dark when it comes to my own numbers,” Andrew said, “and although I knew what I had and what I was doing, this new knowledge was a great relief that enabled me to become laser-focused on my own wealth creation journey and gave me the confidence that I was on the right track to Financial Freedom.”

Next Up: Your Surplus

It’s your turn. Have you found your Cash Surplus yet? If not, jump into Financially Fit Bootcamp, and take charge of your own financial future.