Growing produce

Peppers

Growing Your Own Produce And Financial Independence Pt:2

Money Maroon

Growing your own produce is similar to growing wealth, it takes time and consistency.  Both gardening and building wealth requires that initial thought to take action, and then acting to begin the process. Saving that first dollar is akin to purchasing that first seed. Planting the seed is like depositing that dollar into a bank/an investment account. Watering the seed is similar to adding funds to your accounts. With consistent watering and sunlight over time, a delicious fruit/vegetable/herb will grow for harvesting. Like the fruit/vegetable/herb, with consistent deposits and rebalancing over time, your bank/investment account will grow for your harvesting at the time of retirement.

As I grow my fruit/vegetable/herb garden, I cannot help but to think of the parallels between growing your own produce and building wealth. 

Peppers
Return on investment

The Idea

My family had the idea to begin growing our own vegetable and herbs for some time now.  At the very least, we had the romanticized thought of waking up and picking our own tomatoes and peppers as needed. Further, have you seen the prices for produce in the supermarket lately? We also knew that by growing our own vegetables and herbs, we would  begin to use the greenhouse that we have in our backyard. We would initially grow the fruit/vegetable/herb outside and as they grow, bring them into the greenhouse. Our thought was to prevent the birds and other animals from snacking on our vegetables.

On the journey to financial independence, we all begin with an initial thought of waking up and having our F.I.R.E number in the bank. We next turn to the why. We want to retire early to spend more time with family, travel the world or to be able to spend more time doing what we believe to be important. Freedom!!

And then there is the hard part, the how.

Taking The First Step

Once the thought of financial independence is solidified, how long did/will it take you to act? It is very likely that you did/will not act that day, or that month. While we all know that it is important to save and invest as early  as possible to take advantage of compounding, we tend to delay. We use excuses such as: we do not have the money. This fallacy was discussed in The Journey To Financial Independence Is A Marathon, Not A Sprint. Further, because we know that it will take some time to achieve the end goal, we have difficulty starting on the journey  to financial independence. We have difficulty with delayed gratification.

Like beginning the journey to financial independence, we did not begin gardening immediately, we delayed until we shamed ourselves into beginning.  We got to the point of discussing each week, “we should purchase the seeds and plant them.” The next week “next week we will buy the seeds.” The next month, “we should really get this done.” The final straw, “if we do not plant now, we will miss the growing season.” Our prompt to act was the reality that we may miss the growing season. As such, we ventured out to get our seeds and growing pots and later ordered our greenhouse racks.

Like any great plan, the most difficulty part is beginning. Do not wait for a so call right time to begin, begin on the journey to financial independence now. The fact is, there is no better time than now. If you believe you do not have enough to save, finding a way to save $5, $10, or $100 now. Saving on a tight budget will teach you the discipline required to save $1,000, $10,000, or $100,000 later. Set up your saving account now. Build your emergency fund. Open a brokerage account now. Implement a plan to pay down debt now. Do it!

Growth

In growing your own produce, once we planted the seeds in our pots, to achieve the end goal of mature plants with fruit/vegetable/herb, we needed to consistently water our seedlings and expose them to enough sunlight. Every other day, we would water the seedlings in the morning. Over time, we began to see growth. Then peppers and tomatoes appeared as we continued to water and expose to sunlight.

Tomatos
Return on investment

Like our fruit/vegetable/herb, once we began the process of saving and investing, we had to perform consistent maintenance. We set up automatic contributions to both our saving and investment accounts. We actively paid down our debts and at times paid more than the minimum. Like the peppers and tomatoes, our money began to grow. Over time, our debt began to decrease and our wealth increased. While we are closer to financial independence, we have a long way to go. However, we have noticed a number of benefits.

Tangential Benefits

Gardening provides a number of tangential benefits. Growing your own produce can be a great family event. If you have little kids, this is the perfect way to introduce your kids to how fruits and herbs are grown and how they get to the supermarket. Further, this is one activity where little kids can participate in almost all activities. For example, planting seeds, watering the seeds, transferring the plants, harvesting the produce and eating the produce. It is also a great way to get your kids to eat vegetables. They are eating the vegetables that they themselves grew. Gardening is also a great exercise, it gets you off the couch, out of the house, and doing physical and mentally soothing activities outside.

Like gardening, there are real world benefits to beginning the journey to financial independence. The benefit of starting the journey to financial independence is the knowledge that you have an emergency fund and that the fund and your wealth are growing. Having money in the bank lowers financial stress, allows you to take advantage of opportunities and improves confidence. The confidence to take active steps in life to better yourself and financial position. These benefits will affect all aspects of your life, including your personal relationships and your mental health.

Conclusion

Growing your own produce is similar to growing wealth, it takes time and consistency.  Both gardening and building wealth requires that initial thought to take action, and then acting to begin the process. Saving that first dollar is akin to purchasing that first seed. Planting the seed is like depositing that dollar in the bank/an investment account. Watering the seed is similar to adding funds to your accounts. With consistent watering and sunlight over time, a delicious fruit/vegetable/herb will grow for harvesting. Like the fruit/vegetable/herb, with consistent deposits and rebalancing over time, your bank/investment account will grow for your harvesting at the time of retirement.

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Grow Your Own Produce & Financial Independence

Grow Your Own Produce & Financial Independence

Money Maroon

A key component of financial independence is the act of living below your means. Living below your means results from taking stock of your expenditures and cutting back on unnecessary spending. Two of the largest expenditures on a monthly basis is food and mortgage/rent. We often look at lowering our mortgage/rent, but what about what we spend on food? If you are able to reduce your expenditures at the supermarket, would you be closer to a lifestyle that accelerates your journey to financial independence? Consider adapting a farming to F.I.R.E approach, and grow your own produce.

Fresh Produce Is Expensive

Purchasing healthy and fresh foods are typically the most expensive portion of your supermarket expenditure. Typically, a mango will cost at least $1 per mango. What about green peppers ($1.30 each), cucumbers ($1 each), chives ($7 a bottle), orange ($1.50 each), grapes ($5/lb), pineapple ($3 each), water melon, ($6 each) avocados ($2.50 each), apples ($5/lb) and tomatoes ($5)? If you are practicing a healthily lifestyle, by the time you exit the produce section, you have spent over half your budget. Have you thought to grow your own produce or at least a portion?

Grow Your Own Produce

Grow your own produce: Peas, Pepper, Thyme

Based on where you are living, you may not have access to a large backyard, however, anyone can begin growing their own mint, watermelon, basil, chives, peppers or tomatoes inside. Your investment is the purchase of the seeds or small plants and water. If you have the room to do so, investigate growing mangos, avocados or oranges if you live in an area that does not freeze. Or invest in a greenhouse that may keep your plants warm year round.

For those who have fruit trees or have family members who have fruit trees, the cost of these fruits are the cost of walking outside to pick the fruit or the cost of postage (family members posting the fruits). Once mango/avocado/orange/certain peppers/mints are established, they reliably bear new fruits yearly with very little maintenance required. A little investment upfront, yields generational benefits.

The Benefits: Grow Your Own Produce

Imagine the savings if you invest a little time in beginning to grow a portion of your own foods, growing your own produce. While saving $5 here, $2 there and $10 over there on fruits, vegetables, and herbs may not seem like a lot, the small totals do add up. Consider how much you could save each visit to the supermarket. Then, multiply your total by months and years. 

Do not only consider the savings that would be achieved, imagine the satisfaction. Imagine the access to fresh foods if you currently live in a food desert. Imagine the effects on your health.

While we are not encouraging you to quit your day job and become a farmer, we are encouraging you to take a step towards growing a fruit, vegetable or herb. If you like it, grow something else.

Grow your own produce: Basil

Conclusion

A key component of financial independence is the act of living below your means. Living below your means results from taking stock of your expenditures and cutting back on unnecessary spending. Two of the largest expenditures on a monthly basis is food and mortgage/rent. We often look at lowering our mortgage/rent, but what about what we spend on food? If you are able to reduce your expenditures at the supermarket, would you be closer to a lifestyle that accelerates your journey to financial independence? Consider adapting a farming to F.I.R.E approach and grow your own produce. 

Follow me on Twitter @JoToFI_com

Follow me on Instagram @JoToFI_com