Well folks! This is the 100th episode of the Habesha Finance podcast. I’m not sure what to do really, I never imagined I would be here recording my 100th episode of the podcast and to be honest it’s all thanks to you the listeners. I said even if there is one person that Habesha Finance can make an impact then this passion project would have been worth it all. And so for this episode I want to dedicate this time to remembering our foundations of financial freedom.

1. Get life insurance however you can. Of course my first choice is a term life policy that’s affordable and can last you long enough until you’ve built up a big enough nest egg or the people who depend on you financially no longer do so.
2. Get out of debt.
3. Save for retirement:
   1. Up to the match while in debt or Roth IRA what you can.
   2. Once out of debt ramp up savings rate to at least 30% the more the better and the faster you get to achieving financial freedom.
   3. Remember low-cost broad based index funds.
4. Budget Your Income and Expenses – We still use a manual budget but do what works for you.
5. Rent/Mortgage strategy:
   1. 20-25% of take home pay.
   2. Buying a home – get the 20% down, 15 year mortgage if you can afford the monthly payment to be in that 20-25% range. But don’t let that stop you from getting into a good neighborhood for your kids or whatever circumstances that make it important to move into a house/condo/townhouse like I talked about in one of my recent episodes about buying a house.
6. Side hustles are important if you can manage the time and sacrifice. This podcast/blog/YouTube channel and everything else takes time, effort and money. Time away from my wife, sometimes my kids and that can affect folks emotionally and mentally different ways. Try to find balance.
7. Life events happen, remember to cherish the moments with your friends and families as much as possible. Take time to make time for yourself to decompress, refresh however you do. This journey to financial freedom / financial independence is required hard work, sacrifice, dedication, commitment and I would say community. So find a community you connect well with that’s headed toward the same goals as you.

100 episodes and I don’t know what’s to come, but I want to say thank you if you’re new to Habesha Finance or you’ve been here since day 1 you mean more to me than you know and I hope every podcast, post, video, piece of content has been helpful in some way.

Thanks again for being part of the community, talk you soon.