from financial insecurity to freedom

As promised, here’s part 3 of my story on how I went from financial insecurity to financial freedom. A reminder that I’m sharing this story not for the sake of you knowing ‘my’ story; but rather so you can relate through it to reflect on YOUR own life story and step through to become the best version of YOU and create your best life! Thanks for being with me on this journey. 🙏

Part 3 - From financial insecurity to freedom

After having gone through the severe ordeal with hepatitis as a teenager, life felt like a rebirth. I was able to do ‘normal’ things again like sleeping peacefully through the night, having the strength to play with my cousins and enjoy my favorite foods. There weren’t any sudden awakenings but there developed a deep appreciation for life itself.

Our family was bound to move to the United States later that year. I knew my life was about to completely change but I didn’t know how. My grandparents had been to the US before and I remember sitting next to them and asking what life would be like in the US and what people did there. My grandma would laugh and answer all my questions :). I was an excited little kid!

This would be my very first time flying, that too bound for the United States. On the flight I remember being in and above the clouds with the vast mountains and the ocean underneath. I had never seen such views before. I was completely mesmerized!

We had a new found sense of stability as we arrived in the US vs life in India but that  quickly changed when my Dad got laid off during the dot com boom and bust of 2001.

One weekend, I sat in PJs inside our two bedroom apartment in Fremont, California.What should have been a fun weekend, instead felt stagnant and dull. We weren’t going anywhere, nor planning anything fun. Instead what I overheard sitting in my room was one of several conversations I would witness about money between my parents. Without an income, I came to learn that our family had been racking up bills on the credit card for nearly two years.

As a 15 yr old, I began to be filled with a constraining sense of dread and became increasingly angry about our family’s financial health.

What would happen to us like this? Would we end up on the streets?

[Have you experienced a moment in your life where you felt the walls caving in on you?]

Though dad never made us feel a lack of money, he could no longer hide it. One day he took me to a meeting with our apartment manager to negotiate a lower rent. I realized that he took me with him reluctantly so he could show that he had a family to take care of and perhaps the landlord would have some mercy on us. Luckily the landlord was kind. 

I remember the humility I saw in my Dad’s eyes that day. I could sense the sadness in his voice and noticed his drooped shoulders. I felt his pain. He was doing the best he could given the circumstances.

That day I decided that I would never live my life in financial insecurity like I experienced that day. (Sunkulp #1  i.e. Heart and Mind Aligned Decision).

[Was there a moment in your life where you formed a strong determination for something?]

We had no money coming in as a family and I decided I had enough of this limiting existence. God had blessed us with a chance to live in America and I wasn’t going to squander it. I would go get a job myself, earn my own money, help my family and never have to ask for money from my parents again. And, I never did.

Being fifteen and a half, the only place I could work was McDonalds where I spent an entire year busting my butt in the greasy and hot drive-through, which paid a whopping $5.25 an hour. I worked various retail jobs throughout high school eventually ending up at Costco where I had to work in the blistering sun and rainstorms pulling carts in the parking lot - the hardest physical work I’ve done to date! I also created my first 401K there which is still doing well!

I learned the value of hard work and what it took to earn a living. It made me strong and helped me pay my own way through college. It made me so resilient that I felt I could take on anything. I knew I wasn’t going to work in retail forever. I knew I could do better.

Once in college, I started applying and landed an internship at Ernst & Young. Overnight I went from pulling carts in the parking lot at Costco to working on a computer in an air conditioned office with double the pay. Life changed overnight again!

After many wanderings, I decided to study finance in college. I learned how to invest from the very best and began to save and invest in all the years that I worked since. When I graduated I had no student loans, bought a used mustang for my first car and lived at home for several years before moving out. I often saved and invested more than one-third of my net income.

Today, I love empowering people to become the very best version of themselves in career, business and home while living in financial freedom!

Very importantly, these experiences taught me to balance my choices between pleasure and pain. 

• See, if we want amazing health and energy, we have to take care of our body.

• If we want to achieve big goals in our life, we have to become intentional with our time and effort.

• If we want financial freedom, we have to learn to manage our money.

Going through the very ‘pain’ in our life, creates the way for greater happiness and fulfillment to follow.

Initially what feels like pain, becomes great pleasure.

If we always lean into pleasure and avoid pain, we eventually find ourselves in even greater pain.

Question for you -

1. What does reading this story bring up for you?

2. Have you created an empowering relationship with money?

3. What’s your relationship with pleasure and pain in life?

~ Nitin Garg