As you trudge through your work week, do you dream of living in a beachfront property, strumming your guitar or playing catch in the sand with your kids? Or does your vision of Freedom take place in a coffeehouse where you spend your days drafting your first novel?
Whatever you imagine your days of Freedom to look like, now that you’ve painted a picture in your mind’s eye, all you need is to figure out how to get there.
That part’s not so easy. Or, at least, not easy without the right tools.
So what did the 4% of individuals who no longer trade their time for money do differently? They followed (and still do) the Four Money Principles, the Financial Freedom Blueprint, as their roadmap.
Principle # 1: Pay Yourself First
This principle is akin to putting on the oxygen mask first on an airplane. Take care of yourself before you can help others. The essence of this principle can be summarized with the Jim Rohn quote, “The rich invest their money, and spend what’s left, whilst the poor or middle class, spend their money and then invest what’s left.”
Principle #2: Live Within Your Means
A lot of people think Living Within Your Means entails living like a pauper. But really, it’s about taking a holistic approach to how you spend the money that you traded your time for. Is a high-end, high-speed luxury car worth six months of working 10-hour days? Or could you be just as happy with a reputable non-luxury vehicle? Looking at your expenditures and deciding what’s important to you and what isn’t drives this principle.
Principle #3: Protect Yourself
Good things happen to bad people. So our third principle is making sure that if a crisis of some sort happens in your life, that cost doesn’t add to the stress or put your family at risk. Protecting Yourself means building up a minimum of three months expenses into an Emergency Buffer, eliminating debt and purchasing the risk protections and insurances you need.
Principle #4: Make Your Money Work For You
After you’ve Paid Yourself First, addressed the protections you need and figured out how to Live Within Your Means, you’re ready to lay the foundation for your Freedom Generator.
Your Freedom Generator is a system that lets you afford your life today while putting a portion of your income into investments that produce Cash Flow. At some point, you won’t be able to work. When that point comes, your Freedom Generator needs to turn on and produce the income you need for your lifestyle, giving you the ultimate freedom: the freedom of choice and the freedom of time. Working with a money partner can help you get started with this step.
While incorporating these principles into your life might feel overwhelming, by working with the right partners getting on the path to Financial Freedom is much easier than you think!
Freedom is about choice. Would you be doing the same thing today if you were free, would you be doing more of something or less of something? We’re here to hold that vision with you and walk with you step-by-step.
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image credit: Bigstock/StudioDin
Dr. Tony is the co-founder of MindShift.money and the best-selling author of three books on personal and business finances. Having achieved Financial Freedom at 27, Dr. Tony believes that through Financially Fit Bootcamp and Cash Flow Cure everyone can get there. He has made it his life’s mission to help others live a life where their money works for them—not the other way around.