Hi! I’m Ruby Nguyen, the founder of “Breaking The Budget”. I managed to take my goal of early retirement and turn it into a reality – Retired by 40 – in just 5 years! By empowering others with financial education tools, I’m passionate about helping people achieve their dreams sooner rather than later. My mission is for you to join me on this journey towards real-life success stories like mine – let’s make Financial Freedom your destiny today!

So how did I achieve this? It’s all about understanding and applying budget planning and investment strategies. Financial literacy is essential, but unfortunately, it is rarely or not often taught in school curriculums around the world, so it’s important to understand that you need to take it upon yourself to be educated with regard to personal finance management.

When I graduated from university back in 2006, I was fortunate enough to land a great job with very good pay, but no one taught me about budget planning or the importance of investment. Being younger at the time and with no major goals like buying a house yet, I kept most of my money in my savings account at a Japanese bank. This was an issue for me as interest rates were quite low – essentially zero – so there wasn’t much return on my investments from simply keeping money in the bank.

In 2009, I immigrated to New Zealand and quickly realised that my new home was going to be full of challenges. I had never been confronted with such difficulty before, and it made me understand the true importance of money and financial security. It was a difficult time for the whole world as inflation had risen drastically in 2008, meaning that the value of my savings had dropped significantly. This was a very painful experience, and it taught me just how important it is to educate oneself when it comes to financial investments – something I hadn’t previously appreciated.

I began researching different methods of investing my money so that I could ensure its safety in the future, and soon found myself learning about shares, bonds and real estate investments. Each one of these options presented me with a different set of risks and rewards, but no matter which option I looked into, I knew that my financial security would depend on making wise investments. I decided then to start investing small amounts at first until I felt more confident about taking bigger steps in the future.

I also took advice from friends who were already familiar with banking and investing – they provided me with invaluable guidance as I learnt how to make smarter decisions about protecting my wealth. Not only did this help me feel better informed when making decisions about investment opportunities but gave me more confidence in my abilities as an investor. With each step I took towards becoming financially secure, I became more empowered knowing that all my choices were geared towards achieving financial stability for myself and my family.

Over time, however, I started reading up on budgeting and investing more as well as speaking to different financial professionals who had achieved financial freedom through wise investments. This allowed me to accumulate various strategies that eventually enabled me to save enough money to retire within five years.

The main thing I learned was that budgeting is key when trying to achieve financial freedom or early retirement. It’s important that you are aware of your spending habits and where you can cut back if needed so you can save more money each month. Furthermore, understanding different kinds of investments such as stocks, bonds, mutual funds etc., and actively researching them will help increase your wealth over time if done consistently and wisely.

Overall, even though traditional educational systems may not teach us about financial literacy or provide us with budget planning materials, it’s still very possible for anyone with dedication towards their financial goals to achieve whatever they set out for themselves – whether that be early retirement or something else!

I’m thrilled to have you here! I hope this financial education platform can offer some insight and inspiration as we move forward together. Thank you for taking the time to join me on this journey.