Becoming Fancy Free

I knew in my heart of hearts that I did not need as much clothing (or things in general) as I owned and I needed to wear every single thing I bought or owned from that point on. About 2+ years ago, I adopted a capsule wardrobe and never looked back. What is a capsule wardrobe? It is a reduced assortment of your clothing that look great on you and work well together. You can still dress awesome with far less options than you think. In fact, your wardrobe becomes more productive, giving you more value out of your purchases. And you begin training your brain to discern between wants and needs. You will stop buying fast trends. You stop buying garbage for clothing. You start to control your wallet and your impulses instead of them controlling you. I used Project 333 method and I will eventually share my adaptations to this method, and reasoning I use on Fancy Free in an upcoming post.

I'm not saying I don’t still spend money for items I need but I certainly no longer buy anything outside my regular living expenses frequently. When I do I need to buy something, I buy for longevity by way of quality and design. I make sure it sparks joy (we've all seen Marie Kondo!). My Fancy Free journey started when I decided to start controlling the destiny of my time and money by doing what I love and what was important to me...even though I didn't know what that 100% looked like.

When I mentally had arrived at a place of “doneness” with the fashion industry to a friend, she invited me to apply at the technology company she worked at. This company had a good reputation - it understood the value of its people and also went above and beyond to use the company to give back to various non-profit organizations. This being a totally new industry for me, I recognized I would need to take a step or two back down the ladder but I was A-OK with that. I fell in love with the company’s values and the day to day work. I found my groove after a steep learning curve and all the while really appreciated the people In the company (and industry) . I appreciate the company's casual nature, warm people, and everyone’s keenness to do their best work. It was like I was at peace and the career compartment of my life started to make sense and feel good. Step one, check!

My curiosity for the FIRE movement (Financial Independence Retire Early) peaked when my cousin and his wife (in their 30’s) announced they were both retiring. Whhaaaaat? How could that be? My husband and I earn decent livings, put away money and owned our place but we were older than them and not even close to retirement. That is, if you look at it from the traditional way of:

• work until you’re 65 at your regular job

• save the minimum while comfortably affording your increasing lifestyle wants (not needs)

• BUY ALL THE THINGS marketing and society tell you that you need and you don't even realize you're doing it.

The more I learned about what it meant to be financially independent, the more I grew detached to things. Even if they might hold sentimental value, which is definitely the hard part. The way I think about it is, could this be burned in a fire? And if the answer is yes, I need to come to terms with life without it now. That doesn't mean I got rid of EVERYTHING of sentiment, but I have seriously reduced it to pretty much only things that are or planned to be family heirlooms. Things (including clothing) do not hold status, sentiment or memories. *SPOILER ALERT*........... YOU DO!

Thank goodness I had come to these realizations, (although still a work in progress at the time) because shortly after, I became pregnant with my son. Going on maternity leave forced me to re-evaluate our expenses so we could live comfortably on much less income. As I mentioned, I love math and already take care of our family's financial planning, so this part was REALLY fun for me. The news of our baby-to-be also gave me the nesting instinct, which partly included purging everything that doesn't serve purpose. Further, I was overcome by a sense of responsibility to my unborn baby and his future...this included the climate. Which lead me to my new found obsession over reducing the waste coming in and out of our home.

The more I dug into each of these areas I wanted to improve, the more I realized how interconnected living simply and purposefully is with our mental, physical and financial health. I am looking forward to diving into all of this more on fancyfreeyourself.com in coming weeks, months and hopefully years! The best is yet to come...