How to Create CrisisProof Finances

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i remember the day my boss called me

into his office i was excited for this

talk

i thought finally all those nights of

working past midnight in the law firm

were going to pay off and he was going

to give me that bonus i’d been expecting

also i thought we’d talk about maternity

benefits

i was five and a half months pregnant

and just the week before i told him i

was expecting

so i walked into the office with a big

smile on my face

sat down

and my smile soon turned to shock

instead of that bonus or generous

maternity benefit

i got fired

i never saw it coming

because i was so visibly pregnant i

decided i’d wait until after i gave

birth took a short maternity period and

then i would look for another job

we had some savings and my husband was a

self-employed graphic designer i thought

it would be tight

but we’d be fine

i didn’t expect the floor to fall out

from under our feet again

my daughter was born in late august of

2008

within a month after her birth

the markets and my retirement accounts

went into freefall my husband’s graphic

design business went down by 90 percent

we’d already used most of our savings in

the previous months and now i faced a

non-existent job market

we were in a major crisis

and our

our finances were not crisis proof

in the months that followed

we went through all of our savings we

racked up over sixty thousand dollars of

credit card debt

we had to do a short sale on our house

we’re borrowing from our kids bank

accounts

we went on food stamps

i felt like a failure

problems with money are a lot about a

lot more than inconvenience

a recent study found that people facing

major financial stressors such as

unemployment homelessness and lowered

income face a 20 times higher likelihood

of attempting suicide than those not

facing any financial strain

i found the same thing in myself

at the time i had a million dollar life

insurance policy and i was so

desperate and

stressed out about money that if i could

have found a way to get my family that

million dollars

i likely would have taken my life

i think it’s only because i knew that

the life insurance company wouldn’t pay

out in the case of suicide and i

couldn’t think of a way to make it seem

accidental that i believe i’m alive

today

problems like the ones my f my family

and i face are sadly far too common

on average americans are going to face

four such financial shocks in their

lifetimes and this shock like a divorce

or unemployment or

a global pandemic

can set a family or person who seem to

be on firm financial footing right into

the quicksand

i’ve been working with women around

money and investing for over 10 years

and data from my research shows that

most people are actually nowhere near

having firm financial footing

four out of ten people

can’t cover a four hundred dollar

emergency and six out of ten people

can’t cover a one thousand dollar

emergency

that means that

one crisis one

broken down car one accident one

diagnosis

one pink slip

can set a family into financial

devastation homelessness or bankruptcy

and it’s

worse for women than it is for men

women already tend to get paid less for

the same work that men do

they’re more likely to lose years of

career peak career growth taking care of

kids or aging family members

so that means that

when things happen they’re more likely

to be fired first and they’re less

likely to have the savings and

investments necessary to weather the

storms

and the sad fact is that even men and

women with

good jobs can be still very financially

vulnerable

and the lessons that most of us are

culturally taught about money keep us

financially unsafe

most of us are taught

go to school get a diploma

get the best job you can

buy a house put some money in the bank

get a car you’ll be fine you’ll be

secure

did you get that message

i did i was following the plan

i went to an ivy league law school i was

making six but making six figures

working on the partnership track of a

law firm and yet i still found myself

and my family on foot stamps

i’m a seeker and i’m a learner

and i knew that i was in a life-or-death

situation and i had to figure this money

thing out

so i started

reading all the books i could about

money and investing i took courses on

finances i worked with financial

professionals i even became a certified

money mastery coach

and i learned then and have been

implementing ever since the keys to true

financial stability

how to create crisis proof finances

so how do you create crisis proof

finances

it’s very different from what we’re

taught that some magical job with

benefits is going to keep us safe and

secure i like to think of financial

stability as a table

our streams of income streams of income

are the legs of that table

but most of us are taught to put

only one leg under our table our job

so what happens if you can’t work or you

get fired there goes your leg and your

table comes crashing down

to have true crisis-proof finances

you need multiple legs under your table

enough legs so that if you lose a leg

your table stays steady

and your table stays firm

so

how do you create those legs on your

table

one way the way most of us are taught is

to get a job

that’s active income you get paid for

your activity

if you’re self-employed and your clients

pay you for your time that’s active

income too

you’re trading your time for money

i’ve had people tell me you know i have

multiple legs under my table i have

three jobs

and that is a more stable table if you

lose a job you still have others

but

if you can’t work for some reason

because you’re sick you’re taking care

of loved ones

then your table comes crashing down

to have true crisis-proof finances

most of the legs of your table

need to be based on passive income

that’s income you don’t have to trade

your time and effort for

so passive income

can be

can take some time and effort on the

front end to set up but once you set it

up

it will keep coming for you

whether you are

working another job you’re sleeping or

you’re on vacation

and if you have enough

passive streams of income that it equals

or exceeds your expenses

at that point you have financial freedom

then you are working because you want to

not because you have to

so

how do you create those legs of passive

income

one way

my favorite way

is through real estate

luckily even back in 2008 my husband and

i had a couple of investment properties

we live in los angeles which is a very

expensive market

and

it’s hard to cash flow no cash flow no

legs

in fact we had some negative cash flow

that means it cost us money every month

to own

we weren’t educated we didn’t know

better

but that real estate still helped us

because one of our properties had equity

we were able to sell that and we use

that money to

pay off our debts and also to reinvest

in real estate we started flipping

houses back when houses were on sale

after the last crash and then we

we bought and we

started creating passive income through

buying and holding

once you have a property and you put in

a tenant after expenses what you have

left is cash flow money that comes in

every month without you having to work

for it

since then we’ve invested heavily in

real estate and have learned strategies

to bring groups of investors together to

purchase larger properties we have

commercial and residential properties

across 10 states

and have income coming in from over a

thousand rental doors

as you can imagine that makes for a very

steady table

and since then i’ve started teaching

women how to create passive income

through real estate investing

my mission is to help one million women

create financial freedom through real

estate

it is one of my greatest joys now when

one of my students

acquires a property

and puts another leg under her table

another way to create passive income

is through intellectual property

intellectual property are creations of

the mind such as inventions artistic

creations music

films books

i have created books and courses that

i created once and continue to pay me my

son is an actor and a musician so every

time people watch his films or stream

his songs

he gets paid

you can create passive income by

by creating a

by writing a book or creating a song

or creating a patent you create it once

but you’ll continue to profit again and

again

another way to create passive income is

through having a business

a business is different from being

self-employed

a business will work without you let’s

say for example you own a car wash you

don’t personally have to wash and vacuum

every car for that business to give you

money you hire and train employees so

you can be getting income

without having to do the work for it

you can also in get passive income

streams through

investing in stocks and bonds but

remember what really helps your legs is

cash flow

so invest in dividend paying stocks

stocks that pay you regularly

so how do you get started

i suggest that you take 10 or more of

every dollar you earn and you pay

yourself first

take that money to invest in things like

real estate and stocks to start creating

those streams for you

and

get educated because

a lot of the ways of creating income

don’t require any money at all

i know a lot of people won’t even

consider real estate because they assume

mistakenly that you need to have tens of

thousands of dollars or more to even get

in the game

i want everyone to know

that with the right education and

strategies and a little elbow grease

you can get into even real estate with

little to no money

and it’s important that you start

now to create those legs because life is

full

of the unexpected

and you’ll have enough stress to deal

with when these crises show up that you

don’t also want to have to deal with

your table crashing down on you

i’m so grateful that now i’ve created a

very steady table and we’ve achieved

financial freedom

i want the same for you

so start creating that those

crisis-proof finances now

and know that whatever life throws at

you at least you’ll know your money and

your finances

are handled

thank you

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