Financial Independence Series #4 - How To Get Started
Now that you’ve learned about what financial independence actually is, why you need to achieve it, and how to track it, you are probably wondering how you can actually get started. This is the concluding article to our 4 part series of financial independence.
Taking 1 Step Can Make You Financially Independent
In order to begin your road to financial independence, you first need to get started by actually doing something. It doesn’t matter if it’s a great investment, something that hardly gives you any monthly return, or if it turns out to be a flop. By getting started it’s like standing on top of the mountain and letting the snowball start to roll down for the first time.
Here are a few suggestions on how to get started:
- Real Estate - Real estate is one of the most stable and lucrative investment opportunities in the world. It has made more people wealthy than any other investment. All you need is a little knowledge, a few bucks in the bank (or none if you have a lot of knowledge), and some determination to get started.
- Build a Business - Whether you would like to run an online or offline business, it doesn’t matter. Just get something started that only takes up a few hours of your time each week so it doesn’t interfere with your current job. As it grows and exceeds your job income, you can replace the job with your business.
- Start an Information Website - This is possibly one of the best things you can possibly do. It doesn’t take very much money to get started and you can start today. When I started my first website, www.crazyfortea.com, I was a total beginner with absolutely no website experience. However, the company I went through eliminated all my fears and now I’m making a substantial income.The company I went through is Site Build It (Click On That Link For A Brief Tour Of How It Works). They provide every resource you can possibly need to build a money-making website. If you can type in English, you can own a website! The best part is, it’s almost unbelievable how cheap it is to get started. After only about 6 months of having the website online, I can now pay off the yearly fee in 1 month’s income. That means 11 months of free income for me for writing about something I love!If you have any kind of passion or hobby, I strongly suggest you try out Site Build It to start your quest towards financial independence.
- Invest In Stocks/Forex - Although investing in something like a mutual fund won’t give you a great monthly income, it’s still better than nothing. I personally invest in higher risk/higher rewards and have a trading adviser who takes his cut at the end of each month. I just started it this week so I won’t give a recommendation, but if you sign up for the RSS Feed or put your e-mail address in at the top of the page you can find out whether this trading adviser is worth the money.
- Invest In Other People - If you have a lot of money and don’t know where to put it, consider being someone who invests in others. For example, if I wanted to borrow $100,000 for a real estate transaction but didn’t want to go through a bank, I could get it from what are called “hard-money lenders”. These people lend their money out at high interest rates (generally 10-20%) and the other investor pays them that money back. If they default on the loans, you would pick up the property they owned in most cases (consult your attorney on how to properly set this up) - so it’s a win-win either way!
- Prosper - www.prosper.com is an online community in which you lend people other money, very similar to the example above. However, this is done through the Prosper company and it involves you loaning other people money for things they need, such as money to pay off loans, adding additions on to their houses, etc. I suggest only investing in those who are in groups because if the person defaults, the group will pay your loan back to you. I don’t believe this happens if they aren’t in a group.
- Invest In Yourself - Although it might not seem like it, investing in yourself can be one of the smartest things you’ll ever do. If you are still stuck in the mindset of “saving is the best thing to do” I recommend you read the books by Robert Kiyosaki. You can also read books or listen to audiotapes on real estate, trading stocks or Forex, or any other investing opportunity which will increase your likelihood of achieving financial independence.
Investing in any of those 7 examples is a great way to amplify the money you currently own. If you have a high risk tolerance, you might be better off investing in only 1 or 2 which can bring higher returns. If you don’t like risk, don’t feel as if you’re cheating yourself by diversifying - at least you’re doing something!
As I mentioned earlier, I personally believe starting a website is one of the easiest and best ways to start gaining passive monthly income. It takes some hard work, but the faster you grow your site the easier the work will get because of the amazing magic of momentum. To see why Site Build It is so amazing, go to this link - www.quicktour.sitesell.com
No matter what your preferences are, the important thing is that you start today.
Your perfect life awaits,
Jeremy
Read The Rest Of The Series:
Series #1 - What Is Financial Independence?
Series #2 - Why You Need To Be Financially Independent
Series #3 - Tracking Financial Independence
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May 6th, 2007 at 4:26 pm
Hi Jeremy,
Thanks for mentioning Prosper in your post. I wanted to point out one inaccuracy, though - if a borrower in a group defaults, the group is NOT responsible for paying that borrower’s loan. The group just provides reputation to the borrower during the bidding process, and may provide an added sense of accountability (or shame) to the borrower when he or she is deciding which bills to prioritize. The best way to avoid defaults is to lend to borrowers with high credit quality (AA, A, and B, or borrowers of any grade with no past delinquencies, defaults, or public records (bankruptcies)).
Happy lending,
Andrew from Prosper
May 6th, 2007 at 9:58 pm
Thanks for the correction on that - everyone makes mistakes :o).
I had a loan default on me a few months ago and the group paid for it, so I figured it was a rule that groups had to pay for them. I guess I just got lucky.
Either way, Prosper is still a great way to accelerate money and make you feel great at the same time. You can get over 10% returns that are probably more stable than the stock market, plus you get the benefit of helping others!
May 7th, 2007 at 7:09 am
[…] Financial Independence Series #4 - How To Get Started by Jeremy Reeves @ The Road To A Perfect Life. Jeremy gives a few investing ideas towards achieving financial independence. Not all ideas are *easy* to implement for the average person (real estate, foreign exchange, etc.) but it’s always good to know about the available options. […]
May 18th, 2007 at 10:59 pm
[…] Reeves presents Financial Independence Series #4 - How To Get Started posted at The Road To A Perfect Life. Becoming financially independent begins by making the first […]
June 6th, 2007 at 6:40 pm
[…] Reeves presents Financial Independence Series #4 - How To Get Started posted at The Road To A Perfect Life. Getting started is possibly the most important step in […]
September 28th, 2007 at 8:31 pm
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