FINANCIAL FREEDOM FOR MIDWIVES

Most midwives don’t go into the profession for money, but they still want to support their families and finance their dreams. They want to know there will be food on the table, a reliable car, a nice home, a vacation once in a while, and options for retirement. Those things all cost money. Many of us hear from the time we are young, “Go to school, get a good job, and save for retirement.” But those old financial mantras don’t work in today’s society. The truth is that financial freedom is nearly impossible when working for someone else! Over the last 100 years the US dollar has lost 93% of its purchasing power. More recently inflation has increased, particularly in this post-Covid era. Meanwhile the average salary hasn’t keep up with inflation rates. This, in large part, is why families in past generations could typically live off a single income while one person stayed home. Now both parents are struggling to make ends meet even with two full-time jobs, and still have trouble affording day care for their children. As a result most of us find ourselves exchanging more and more of our time for the same money. 

There is a breaking point where there isn’t any more time left. Your time is your most valuable asset, and it needs to be treated that way. There’s a secret that’s known to the rich, but most people don’t know about…and it is: “You’re never going to become wealthy trading dollars for hours.” Dollars for hours is your 9-5 day job… and it means that in order to make more money, you have to work more hours. The truth is, there are only so many hours in the day. If you fill them all up with work, things are going to fall apart—your health, your relationships, your sanity. Do you really want to do that? Of course not. What good is having more money if you don’t have the time to enjoy it? 

Instead, you need to look to at what the wealthy do in order to keep money coming in even while they aren’t working. One of their key principles to success is leveraging assets. Having assets means creating passive income streams for you. As midwives, we need to start changing our mindset from either being employees or being self employed to being business owners who can create innovative income streams. Many people refer to the passive income concept when talking about real estate. But you can leverage the same idea of using external resources and creating passive income streams in other ways, too. An example of this is selling other people’s products. Think about it—businesses have already done the heavy lifting by creating their products; you can leverage their work and sell these while collecting passive income.

I encourage each and every one of you to see what “side hustle” you can start to grow into a self-sustaining business. What products, services, or ideas do you have that can be converted into a larger scale business that brings money in whether you are awake or sleeping? You can still be a midwife and catch babies but on your own terms, not on those of the financial system. By utilizing this principle, once financial freedom is created from multiple income streams, a midwife can go on to create the midwifery practice of her dreams, one which matches her ultimate values and mission. I would love to talk with each and every one of you about your long term financial goals, and help you create the road map to follow and get there. Too many dreams just stay dreams. Let’s turn your dreams in to a reality.