You don't need a six-figure salary to achieve financial freedom.
In fact, some of the most financially secure people I know don't earn huge paychecks.
They've just mastered the secret to making their money work for them.
And that's exactly what we're going to do.
In the next 10 minutes, I'm going to show you how you can completely transform your financial life in just six months by following a clear, month-by-month plan.
It's the same blueprint that's helped thousands of people go from paycheck to paycheck living to building real wealth.
If we're new here, hi, I'm Nisha.
I'm a qualified accountant and a former investment banker.
And on this channel, we talk about all things personal finance and self-development.
Let's start.
Month number one.
Have you ever heard of the ostrich effect?
This is a psychological bias where people actively avoid information that makes them uncomfortable, especially when it comes to money.
So, if you think about it, have you ever delayed checking your bank account after a weekend of spending, or ignored a credit card statement because you just didn't want to see the damage?
That is the ostrich effect in action.
Our brains convince us that if we don't look The problem somehow doesn't exist.
The irony is that avoidance actually makes things worse.
Stress builds up in the background.
Small issues snowball into bigger ones and, before you know it, you feel completely out of control.
But the moment you face your finances head on, something shifts.
Clarity replaces anxiety.
What if replaces what's next.
So this month, month number one, is all about ripping off that band-aid and taking full control.
Step one, calculate your core four numbers.
These are the only four numbers you really need to focus on at this stage.
The first is your net income, so that is the amount that comes into your bank account after tax, essentially your take-home pay.
Secondly, your fundamental expenses, so your rent or mortgage, your bills food ie groceries transportation, anything that is fundamental to your day-to-day living.
Then your future you any money that is already going towards savings and investments.
Third thing you need to know
And finally, your fun spending.
The spending that's left over for the little pleasures in life that make it that much more fun.
This, when you start doing, is going to make you feel a bit uneasy.
You might discover you're spending more on dining out than you realized, or that your subscription services are eating up a significant portion of your income.
But at this step, knowledge is power.
And you'll see in the rest of the video why what we're doing in month one is so foundational.
To make this process easier, I recommend using an app or a spreadsheet, ideally one that does the calculations for you and is really easy to use, because the last thing you need when you're doing something that feels like a chore is using a tool that makes it even worse.
You just won't do it.
Less friction is key.
If you want to use my intentional spending tracker, it's linked in the description and it comes with a step-by-step video on how to set it up as well.
Moving on to month number two.
This month, your goal is simple.
Save one month's worth of your fundamental expenses.
So if your fundamental cost that you calculated throughout month one is 2500, that's your target amount to save up.
I know it sounds like a lot, but this one step alone moves you into the top percentile of people who actually take control of their money.
A lot of people don't get to the stage, not because they can't cut back, but because their brain fights against it.
Humans are wired for immediate gratification, which makes saving feel like a loss.
But here's the reframe.
You're not depriving yourself.
You're buying freedom.
So for the next month, go all in.
Cancel subscriptions that you barely use.
Cook at home instead of eating out.
Pause non-essential purchases.
And just know that this hit that you're taking in this month is temporary.
If saving that amount in one month feels too aggressive, spread it out to two months or three months.
But be honest with yourself.
Don't use a stretched out timeline as an excuse to keep spending unnecessarily.
Because The faster you build this, the sooner you break free from the paycheck to paycheck cycle.
Moving on to month three, tackle bad debt and start building your emergency fund.
Most people try to save and pay off debt at the same time but end up spinning their wheels.
That's likely because they treat all debt as equal and they don't know what to target first.
We need to separate the types of debt out.
Some debt like mortgage or student loans can be seen as good debt.
And other types of debt like credit cards, consumer loans, they're seen as bad debt.
It's stopping you from moving forward and comes with really high interest rates.
So here's a plan.
Rank your debt in terms of interest rate from highest to lowest.
For the debt that's over 8%, prioritize paying off ASAP in that order that you listed.
It's the fastest way out.
How much should you put towards this debt?
Well, you've already calculated what you have left over from the tracker you filled out in month one.
It's the number that you have left after paying for all your fundamental expenses.
Take as much of that number as possible and channel it straight into your high interest debt repayment plan.
Once you've cleared out your high interest rate debt, instead of paying down the rest of your debt, shift your focus to securing your emergency fund.
This way, you're making faster progress.
Start by saving three to six months of your fundamental expenses.
So if you have a stable job, aim for three months to start with.
If your income is unpredictable, go straight towards the six months.
But don't get stuck here forever.
A lot of people pause their financial growth to keep stacking cash.
Instead, in month four, you want to start investing whilst building out the rest of your emergency fund.
And by the way, this emergency fund needs to be easily accessible, but not too accessible.
So the best place is a high interest savings account.
It takes 10 minutes to set this up.
If you don't know what account to use, watch this video right here on things to look out for when choosing.
Don't laugh at how awkward i was in that video.
It's one of the first videos i recorded on this channel, but it's a good one.
So, month number four start investing whilst you're topping up the rest of your emergency fund.
A lot of people think investing is complicated, risky or something you do after you've saved for years, but the truth is that the sooner you start, the more wealth you'll build.
So, first thing, you want to make sure that you're maxing out your employer's benefits.
This is the easiest form of free money.
If your employer offers a retirement match, contribute enough to get it.
It's literally free money and 100% return on your contributions.
If you skip this, you're leaving money on the table.
Step two, open a tax advantage investment account.
Where you invest matters just as much as what you invest in.
So if you're in the UK, open up a Stocks and Shares ISA.
That's a tax-free investment account.
If you're in the US, it's the Roth IRA.
That's a tax-free retirement savings account.
You'll have different ones depending on the country that you're in.
These accounts let you keep more of your gains instead of losing them to tax.
Step three, invest in broad market funds.
Keep it really simple.
You don't need to pick stocks.
In fact, most pros can't even beat the market consistently.
So instead, invest in index funds and ETFs.
They spread your risk across hundreds of thousands of companies.
The S&P 500 alone has averaged a 10.5% annual return over the last 20 years.
That's the power of long-term investing.
And step four, keep building out your emergency fund without missing out on investing.
You don't have to choose between saving and investing.
You can do both.
So at first, you want to prioritize your emergency fund.
Then you might want to shift to 70 towards going towards your emergency fund and 30 going towards investing.
Then 50-50.
And then once you've built up your emergency fund, you can focus 100% on wealth building.
This way, you're always moving forward, building security and growing wealth at the same time.
Month five, increase your income.
Every job should give you one of two things, a learning opportunity or an earning opportunity.
Ideally, you want both.
But if you're getting neither, you want to do something about it.
Either negotiate a pay rise or start exploring better paying opportunities.
In most cases, switching jobs is the fastest way to increase your income and to really drive this point home.
I've got a video breaking down my salary year by year for the nine years I spent in investment banking and you'll see exactly where the biggest pay jumps came.
And that's why I'm saying this.
If you're underpaid or undervalued, don't just wait for your employer to notice.
Make the move that benefits you.
And if you want to try something new, create a side income, sell a skill, start freelancing, monetize a hobby or build an online income stream.
Even an extra $200, $300 a month can massively speed up your savings and investments.
So that's month five, increasing your income.
And then we're on to month six, automate and optimize.
Have you ever heard of decision fatigue?
It's a psychological phenomenon where the more choices that we make in our day, the worse our decisions become.
And by the time we get to the end of the day, our brains are so exhausted.
And so we default to whatever is easiest, whether that's skipping the gym, ordering a takeout or just ignoring our finances.
And that's exactly why automation is one of the most powerful things that you can do for your finances.
When you rely on manual decisions to save, invest or pay bills, you leave room for inconsistency.
Some months you'll be on top of it and then other months when life gets busy, you'll fall behind.
That's why the secret to financial success isn't discipline.
It's removing the need for discipline altogether.
So in this month, we're doing two things.
First, we're automating your entire money system.
Bills and fixed expenses.
You want to set up direct debits for rent, for mortgage, for utilities, for insurance, for debt repayments.
This prevents late fees and also protects your credit score.
Then you want to automate your savings and investments, schedule automatic transfers to your savings, your investment accounts, your retirement fund, and you already know what you can set up in this stage, because you've already figured out what your finances look like, you know how much you need for your fundamental living expenses, and so you know what percentage you have available to be able to allocate towards your savings investments, and you want to pay yourself first.
You want to put that into your own pocket before paying anyone else.
And then the rest is your everyday spending.
Use a separate account or a card for your fund money, your daily expenses.
This makes budgeting effortless because when the money's gone, you know that it's gone.
The second thing you want to do is review and adjust your financial plan, because your financial plan isn't set in stone.
Your income changes, your expenses shift, your goals evolve.
Continuously check in with yourself and ask yourself Are my automated savings and investments still aligned with my goals?
Has my income increased?
If so, can I increase my savings rate?
The financial world is constantly evolving.
New investment opportunities, tax laws, money saving strategies emerge all the time.
So the more you educate yourself, the better equipped you'll be to capitalize on smart financial moves.
To stay up to date, you could always subscribe to this channel.
I upload a new video every Sunday well, most Sundays with the primary goal of helping you take control of your money and ultimately, your entire financial life.
And then I also throw some self-development in there too.
So if you haven't already, you can click the button below to subscribe and I'll see you next Sunday.
