5-Star Living on a 2-Star Budget (eBook)

Simple Solutions. Abundant Results.

Danielli Martel (Autor)

eBook Download: EPUB

2019 | 1. Auflage
126 Seiten
Bookbaby (Verlag)
978-1-5439-8934-2 (ISBN)

Infos

Even on a tight budget, it's possible to have the fabulous experiences and to enjoy the rich life you thought only the wealthy could live! In '5-Star Living on a 2-Star Budget - Simple Strategies. Abundant Results.' Danielli Martel sheds light on the simple tactics that allow anyone to enjoy an abundant lifestyle, no matter your income!

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The moral of this story is that money is a tool that we must use in this existence. As with any tool, the more you know how to use it, the better the outcome. However, money and goods aren't everything. It is important to find things to do and people who bring you joy without causing financial hardship. Regardless of one's financial standing, the tips and tricks found within the book apply to everybody, especially those in a period of transition and transformation. These can be scary times. Financial discord is a significant contributor to a person feeling anxiety, strain, anger, peer pressure, suffering repercussions in the form of poor health and poor quality of life. Often, these stressors lead to divorce, overall dissatisfaction with life, familiar discourse, and a desire to give up. Through this journey we will learn that we will overcome. We will thrive!The reader will learn to manage their household finances in the same manner in which businesses manage their finances. Finances are, after all, part of the business of living. We will learn and apply healthy financial habits in order to acquire and maintain one's basic needs to survive in the material world. This includes shelter, food, and clothing. It is imperative to develop the discipline to save toward growth and betterment. Together, we will explore how and what that looks like. We will learn recovery tools for changes beyond our control. We will explore the value of acceptance and remember that this too shall pass...when one puts effort into affecting change. The reader will learn how to squeeze every bit of value out of every dollar they have using simple and easy to apply tactics. We will delve into how to make the most out of what you have and how to take steps to earn more of what you want. This book is important because it teaches the reader the basics of finance (the lessons that aren't taught in school), the power of asking questions, the benefits of being your authentic self, tools to overcome seemingly insurmountable issues, strength to face uncomfortable discussions/situations, the value of sharing your truth with others and the reward of living a life of being of service to others. This will leave the reader feeling empowered with practical and easily applied tips and tricks shared within the book to set the reader on a path to a more joyful and abundant life experience.

Textauszug

Push. Pull. Drag. Lift. Climb.

My first five years of life were spent in a small town with hard working, young parents. We lived in a mobile home buried in the woods behind my Grandmother’s house. My parents worked alternating shifts at the local electronics factory. Eventually, they followed their entrepreneurial spirits which led to an affluent home and an existence that included celebrity meetings, presidential visits and a lot of amazing, memorable experiences. I grew up in a home that exposed me to the power of words, action and intention.

I was two weeks from my high school graduation when I felt a sudden and unexpected urge to run away from home. That day, I walked out of the door with the clothes on my back and a sum of money that I knew would only get me so far. I gave no explanation. I didn’t really know why myself; I just made the decision and left. It wasn’t until years later that I found out what had pushed me to such drastic behavior. I’d been bitten by a bug. Not the cool now you can spin a web and swing through the city kind, but the you’re about to succumb to venom kind. I had Bipolar II Disorder, Generalized Anxiety Disorder, Insomnia, Panic Disorder, Post Traumatic Stress Disorder…the list of “titles” went on. Whatever label you put on it, it wasn’t going away and I had to find a way to deal with it.

An Illegal Apple Picker

A series of blessings and curses led me to cross the border into Canada. For a summer, I worked as an illegal immigrant. Through hard work on le verger de pomme (the apple orchard), I was able to survive. I experienced moments of trepidation and dread, but also moments of pure beauty and joy. I would walk from the field to the pop-up trailer I called home with an unshakeable motivation to continue, to keep trying, to struggle hard.

Then, in the Autumn of my eighteenth birthday, I moved back to the United States. I’d learned to survive on the bare minimum, which had given me courage and determination. Now, I wanted to live an enriched and fulfilling life.

Slowly, I began reconnecting with much of my family and gaining the support of friends. I finished high school among strangers and decided not to go to college, and instead, worked various jobs to make ends meet. At nineteen I married, and by the time I was twenty-three, I had two children, was bankrupt, divorced, and received welfare assistance. Those years were emotionally and financially exhausting. I was high school educated in a competitive job market, and a divorced mother of two. Some mornings I would stare blankly at the ceiling, trying very hard to keep my head above the dark clouds. Depression is a weird feeling. For me, it was not a surrender, but rather a sort of mental digression. I wasn’t ready or able to face life during that period of time, yet I knew that I had the courage deep within me to keep going.

In the midst of all this, I had the opportunity to earn my pilot’s license. From that training, I learned life lessons that helped me see the world differently, perhaps more clearly. I learned that takeoff and landing are the determining factors in the success of a flight. Ideally, takeoff entails plotting, planning, pre-flight, and setting a course. The middle part, known as the flight path, is sometimes smooth, often turbulent, frequently cloudy, but usually stays on course. Occasionally, you have to pull out of tough situations using all available tools, systems, training, and instinct to determine a corrective course of action, influencing the result of the journey. With favorable conditions, adequate training, and practice, the landing should be relatively smooth. If you are thrown into the cockpit and have to figure it out “on the fly,” you have to make the decision that—with support, courage, and luck—you will figure it out. At the end of the day, any flight you walk away from is a good one.

I realized it was time to get into the cockpit and hit the throttle.

A Fifteen-Hundred-Mile Journey

The next year would be a whirlwind of highs and lows. An amazing couple, Tom and Nancy, graciously offered room and board to me and my children in Florida. My friend Joni and my freshly divorced self left the New England courthouse parking lot in a U-Haul and began the fifteen-hundred-mile journey toward my new life.

My first obstacle/opportunity was deciding to interview for a job in a large IT company which required a college degree I didn’t have. My year in real estate sales had proven that I had the gift of being able to sell. Right then, I knew that I would have to sell myself—despite my lack of formal university education—to get the gig. My second obstacle, fear, had me questioning why they would hire me over a more qualified, or more accurately, a qualified candidate. I decided right then to go into the interview believing and talking as though the interviewers had no other option but to hire me. Through three rounds of interviews, I persevered and got the job. I was flying high! Until I found out about obstacle number three—a hiring freeze that had put the new job on hold until further notice.

Through a placement agency, I became the interim administrative assistant to the regional director of sales for a telecom corporation. I kept my eyes open for a permanent position, and when it finally came, the offer letter from the IT company gave me the confidence to request a matched salary. And I got it! I was on top of the world again, with my comfy chair and a regular paycheck…well, at least for the next six weeks, until the corporation had massive layoffs.

Thankfully, my manager was keen to the sales leads I was bringing in as his assistant. I was told there would be hoops to get through, but that he was willing to make the effort to place me in a sales position. After several weeks of waiting for approval from upper management, I received word that I was now a business to business account manager in telecom. This experience and opportunity taught me that it pays off to act like human resources, think like a marketer, and work like a boss.

A 5 Percent Angle

I was immediately sent out of state for training, and it was at this moment that I felt the complexity of the seemingly momentous task that lay ahead of me. I was supposed to reach the leaders, pioneers, senior executives and CEOs of companies, and I knew right away that I might fail at this. One knows just how difficult it is to get in touch with high profile people, and I felt that I simply could not do it. Then, an idea came to me. The easiest selling point of the product I was offering was that if five lines of service came from one company, the company and their employees would earn a 5 percent discount. So, I approached the challenge from a different angle. Rather than going straight to the top, I decided to highlight the benefit of the 5 percent employee discount. I started talking to the receptionist of the hotels I was staying at and office complexes I would visit, marketing the benefits of our department. Soon, people in offices all around town started to sign up with me. I then realized that they could be my opportunity to reach management and the C-level executives while yielding benefits and discounts for themselves. Rather than waiting for luck to help me get ahead, I requested they forward my message to the decision makers which reached the leaders choosing telecom services. It wasn’t long before I was a top salesperson in the company.

Two years into my work there, I was offered a position with a second telecom company. With the effects of 9/11 on the economy, I was looking for security. My current job had laid me off already before, and I was looking for advancement opportunities. So, though I had to take a step down the ladder in the beginning, I took the job. Intending to move toward management, I requested to work in the retail store to learn a new area of business.

One interaction with a customer became an opportunity I wasn’t expecting. I assisted him with a new phone purchase, setting up a new line and answering some billing questions. Though I had become annoyed with the time it took to complete the transaction, I remained pleasant and professional. Little did I know that I was being field interviewed, or how much this transaction would change the trajectory of my career and life.

As this customer left my station, he handed me his card and said, “If you ever need a quote, give me call.” As chance would have it, I had just received the renewal notice for my homeowner’s insurance. I called him and requested a quote. By the end of the call, I was offered a position as a customer service representative for his agency. He asked me what my goals were, where I saw myself going with my career, and what I was currently earning. He stated that he could not match my current employment package but shared a vision of what could be, if I did my part. I slept on it. My bank account and obligations indicated it wouldn’t be doable, but I had to follow my intuition, which told me to go for it.

My job was extremely satisfying. Not only did I feel I was offering a product that truly mattered to people, but I was crushing the law of attraction! I was blowing sales numbers out of the water. Within months I was earning more than I had ever earned in telecommunications. One evening after a team meeting at a restaurant, I nonchalantly tapped a BMW and said, “I’ll know I’ve made it when I’m driving one of these.” A few weeks later, my employer called me and...

Produkt-Details

• Erscheint lt. Verlag: 12.10.2019
• Sprache: englisch
• Themenwelt: Sachbuch/Ratgeber ► Beruf / Finanzen / Recht / Wirtschaft ► Geld / Bank / Börse
• ISBN-10: 1-5439-8934-9 / 1543989349
• ISBN-13: 978-1-5439-8934-2 / 9781543989342