I just wanted to write a quick post to say that I’ve finally hit my first major goal in my quest for financial independence.
When I first got the notion to start building up my wealth, I made a lot of short term small goals, and my larger goal was to get to the point of making $300/month of passive income, which would be roughly half of my monthly expenses.
Well, I just checked everything and right now I’m at about $306 for the month, still with 3.5 days left in the month, so I’ve hit my first major milestone!
By the end of the month I should be at 50% financial independence, which would mean that between decreasing my expenses and increasing my income, I’ve added almost 10% since last month.
I just wanted to write this to motivate my readers and say that you CAN do it. I never thought I’d reach this point in a million years, but I have. You might be thinking ” who cares it’s only $300/month, but it’s still the fact that right now I’m roughly 50% financially independent.
The investment I was talking about the other day should be starting on Monday, so at the end of next week I’ll report back on that.
If you haven’t started any ventures to succeed in your quest for financial independence, start right now. Every day that goes by is a day lost.
In this series I’ll be explaining what I believe will happen to families and individuals if they retire without being financially independent.
You can choose to believe me or refuse to accept these beliefs, but either way they are true. My goal is to put forth the best information I can to prepare people for what’s ahead of them. After that, it’s up to you.
The Danger Of Not Being Financially Independent
According to Fidelity, the average amount in a persons retirement account is a measly $61,000. Considering the fact that you absolutely need about $12,000-$15,000 just to get by in a given year at the lowest level of poverty, these people are in for a serious awakening when they retire.
They are relying on Social Security to help them survive through the times which they will refer to as their golden years. However, for the majority of people in the next few decades, their golden years are actually going to turn out to be something more along the lines of the Dark Ages.
Although Social Security was a great idea when it was first signed into law by Franklin D. Roosevelt, the implications it has for todays society has changed drastically. With the baby boomer generation retiring, there isn’t going to be enough money for everybody. Unfortunately, most people didn’t think anything like that could ever happen.
When Social Security eventually falls through, 2 things could happen.
Millions of people of 65+ years are going to be working until the day they die and never get to enjoy retirement.
The rate of homeless folks in the country is going to skyrocket, and poverty is going to be a major issue.
Even for people that are middle-aged now, this has major implications. Most people, my father included, think that Social Security is going to be a long-term solution to living a happy retirement. Although I’ve preached to him many times about it he still doesn’t believe me, probably out of fear that I’m correct. He just doesn’t want to accept it.
By looking at the facts and listening to many top economists around the country, there is a high probability that what I’ve just said is in fact correct. I honestly hope that I’m wrong, but what is the point of hoping that some kind of miracle will happen? You’re much better off getting started on creating financial independence for you and your family than relying on the government for anything – period.
Now on the other hand, what if your investments were making you just as much or more than your job was when you decided to retire? You could then live the same lifestyle, but have even more time to enjoy it!
Once the ball gets rolling, it’s hard to stop it. Compounding is a fantastic thing, which is why you need to start now on your quest to be financially independent. It’s amazing how much of a difference just a few thousand dollars or a year can make in how fast you accumulate money.
In my next article I’m going to talk about some of the things I suggest you look into so you can start to build your financial empire. Some of them I’m already involved in, some of them I will be involved in shortly but have studied them extensively. Everything is different for each individual person.
If you’d like to learn a lot more that is beyond the scope of this blog, please read “Why We Want You To Be Rich” by Donald Trump and Robert Kiyosaki. It will open your eyes up to the tragedy that’s about to happen in the next few years.
Financial independence is one of the most important things you can ever accomplish in your life. In the next few posts I’m going to be talking about financial independence and why you need to make it a part of your life. I will be explaining what it is, suggestions on how to achieve it, what will happen to you and your family if you don’t achieve it, as well as how to track it.
Today I’m going to be talking about my definition of financial independence to give you a good context for the next few articles.
So What Exactly Is Financial Independence?
I came across this term for the first time a few years ago while reading Rich Dad, Poor Dad by Robert Kiyosaki. His book completely changed my thoughts about wealth and how to achieve it, and I would strongly recommend you to read it if you haven’t already. I’ve read almost everything he’s written, and I love them all.
Simply put, it is when your passive income is higher each month than your expenses.
Your expenses would consist of anything that you need to pay for each month. There are 2 ways of going about this. 1 is that you only list the absolute necessary expenses, such as your bills. The other way, the way that I follow because I feel it’s more realistic, includes other expenses such as entertainment. You can figure out what you spend on entertainment by keeping track of what you spend for a month on things that aren’t bills, such as going out to eat or to the movies.
Your goal is to make the money you receive from passive income higher than all your expenses combined.
For example, if you own 10 pieces of rental real estate property which are giving you a total of $5,000/month cashflow and your monthly expenses only come out to $4,500/month, you are considered financially independent.
You may be wondering, ok thats great, but what is passive income? I’ll go into further detail on it in a future post, but for now you can think of passive income as something that will put money in your bank account even if you go on vacation. It should require little or no work to maintain.
A great example of passive income is explained in my post about a new company that paid out over $120 million to it’s users in less than 2 years – Agloco. This will be a great way to get started in your quest to be financially independent. Remember, the first step is always the hardest but everything becomes easier after that.
Being financially independent means that you don’t have to work. The people who have achieved this level of wealth and still work are either very much in love with their jobs or are trying to put an even bigger wedge in between their income and their expenses – which is always a good idea.
Can you imagine what it would feel like to wake up in the morning and go to your job for pure enjoyment? I would guess that at least 80% of people aren’t entirely happy with their jobs. Even if you already love your job and wouldn’t leave it for the world, financial independence is still something you should achieve. Having more money is always a great thing, even if it’s just to have a safety net. Companies are constantly downsizing, tragedies happen, unexpected events come up. You can’t predict what will happen in the future.
On your own personal road to the perfect life, you should put financial independence at the top of your list. The only thing above it, in my opinion, should be health. After you achieve financial independence, you can work much more on your other goals! By being financially independent you will have fewer worries, less stress, and the quality of your life will grow in leaps and bounds.
Make it a point right now to start brainstorming ideas on how to achieve your own financial independence and put your life in the fast lane to success. Don’t let fear get in the way. I recommend heading over to this page to get you started.
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