Not long ago, I was sitting in another meeting, gazing at the people around me, wondering—how did I get here? I was supposed to help people, to be of service in connecting them to careers they felt passionate about. Instead I found myself in another meeting discussing product positioning and the profitability.

I felt stuck.

I had left a career in marketing to follow my heart toward work that developed people. The method I followed was attaining a Masters in Human Resources, along with a corporate HR job. Nevertheless I found myself in roles supporting business initiatives instead, with little time to positively influence the lives of people.

When you are standing in the same place you thought you left years ago, it’s time to go within and discover your true intentions. For myself, my intention was to help people develop a deeper awareness of why they do what they do and to connect their truest desires to passionate work they loved—not the reality at the time.

Given the gap between doing what I intended and what needed to be done at work, I knew I needed to take action to create a path I would find more fulfilling.

The challenge was that my next jump was going to have less of a formula and require time to produce income. Thankfully I had many inspirational sources to take the challenge on with full responsibility and openness to creative solutions.

That said, the goal was to save 70% of our dual income to amass ten years’ worth of living expenses in support of our dreams of entrepreneurship. We also wanted to travel and enjoy the occasional meal out during this time—so creativity was key!

This past September I was able to take my leap of faith and start a life coaching business, given a separation program from my previous employer and the attainment of the 10x yearly living expenses goal. Opportunity complemented the effort my husband and I put forth in a beautiful way I never expected.

There were countless tactics we used to accomplish to save our goal amount, for simplicity’s sake, I categorize them below.

4 Tactics I Used to Save 70% of My Income and Amass Ten Years’ Worth of Living Expenses

1. Detach your self-worth from your material world.

There is a powerful tendency in our society to link our stuff with our worth. To detach myself from this connection, I removed unnecessary things from my life and reflected on how I felt without the item. As examples, I kept my 2004 car for 10+ years; I didn’t get my hair highlighted for a year and I only replaced 10 items in my wardrobe last year (compared to an average of 25 replacements a year). I didn’t miss much—with the exception of the highlight—I’m really excited about being blonde again. 🙂

[RELATED: 15 Ways I Paid Off 80k of Debt]

2. Go beyond limiting money beliefs.

With savings as a goal, it was challenging to invest in our businesses. Last year my husband needed to go to NYC to attend the Architectural Design show—costing more than we budgeted for. Personally, I had to let go of my scarcity mindset, go beyond our limiting money beliefs and put our money in service of my husband’s development. It paid off in exposure, experience and sales.

3. Always be open to a hot deal.

During our accruing years, we never skipped a year to travel. Last year we went to Italy, on roughly half the suggested budget through American Airlines Advantage miles and by using Airbnb credits. We were also able to dine at our local favorite restaurant twice a month by purchasing gift card deals on the Raise App. Deals enabled us to experience luxury along the journey as well as new sites.

4. Learn and get out of your comfort zone.

Building your skills, makes life require less money. For me specifically, I focused on building my skills in cooking, gardening and hosting. I started with a few basic recipes, but with BudgetBytes’ help—I soon became a regular in the kitchen—whipping things up with leftover ingredients and meal planning to optimize store deals. I also learned how to start a garden and can tomatoes. Finally, I started hosting more dinners at our home and received more invites to more home based gatherings so we could still enjoy our friends. It’s amazing how much you can save not eating out!

I truly believe that when you set an intention and follow through with your best efforts, it will be rewarded in unforeseen ways. This is why I encourage everyone I meet to define their desires, become intentional and wait for the magic.