Financial Freedom Made Easy
In all honesty, it’s a whole lot easier to have more or even total financial freedom in your life then you might imagine. All it takes is an understanding of what financial freedom means. This article is designed to give you some simple information to really help stimulate your thoughts on financial freedom.
It’s best that you come to your own conclusions about this subject then to be force fed information that you take on blind faith and have no understanding of. After reading these concepts, you may want to take a moment to reflect on it. Try to wait till this information is understood within you before taking action to implement the steps. ( Or take baby steps. Trust me, you’ve got all the time in the world to figure this out. )
What Financial Freedom Truly Is
A mindset & a way of being! A lot of people associate financial freedom with nice cars, and properties. ( And all of this stuff is great! ) However financial freedom is simply being able to have money for the things you need and love without the obligation of having to work for it. ( Or work very little to achieve the same goal. ) It means that you have the ability to do what you want, and when you want to. It means you are free to live ALL of your life the way you want. When one is truly financially free, they are able to set their own work hours and enjoy a profession they are truly passionate about as well.
The Love of Money
Cultivating a healthy love for money is important if your looking to gain more financial freedom down the road. While I’m not saying to put money before your religion, family, or friends. I am saying that it’s very important to enjoy and love money. If you start giving money the respect it deserves it will start gravitating to you all the time. Sit down and think what money stands for in today’s time. Notice that people who say, “Money isn’t everything” are usually the people with the least amount. Take note that the people who are always talking positively about money usually end up having a lot of it. The people talking positively about money are already in the mindset of financial freedom.
It is wise to get over any notion that the love of money is “evil.” It’s nothing of the sort. How could being able to provide a happy lifestyle for yourself and family be evil? How could being able to send your kids to the best schools be bad? The last time I checked being able to get a massage on a weekly basis proves to have many health benefits. All of these things require money. So money is a wonderful thing that helps us create a medium for the exchange of goods and services. I have never in my entire life seen someone who believes money to be evil obtain much of it in their lives. I’ve usually noticed them complaining about how little they have.
Cultivate Your Self-Image
I’ve said this many times before. “It’s essential that you cultivate a healthy self-image.” Why? Because people who believe themselves to be a winner will always receive the results of a winner, and those who believe they are losers will always get the results of a loser. There is nothing wrong with you sitting down with yourself and talking about how wonderful you are. Its very important that you take time out during the day to compliment yourself A LOT. When you do this you are telling your entire being that its valuable, and that it has to be treated as valuable. You will then start finding yourself in higher paying jobs, and receiving raises out of no where. Why? Because now the world will start viewing you as you view yourself.
Now this isn’t something you do once and awhile. This is something you want to do ALL the time. It’s important that you start to genuinely feel like a millionaire to start getting the results of a millionaire. As time goes on you’ll start noticing people treat you better and better. You’ll be able to raise the prices on the things you sell or get the promotion you’ve been looking for. This will all take place for you simply because you are sending forth an energy that says, “I’m a valuable person, and I deserve to be treated as such.”
Paying Things in full is always the best way to go.
Instead of attempting to buy things with credit cards or loans try paying for things in full. Credit cards and loans will cause you to become financially enslaved. You will end up having to work and maintain a certain momentum in order to keep paying them. You’ll also find yourself paying way more in the long run. All of this extra money going towards paying the credit cards down on items you have long since grown tired of could be used on other things. My advice? Just buy everything you possible can up front. Instead of driving a new car, just get a certified used one. Instead of buying a brand new computer go out and buy a used one. ( Most computers that have an internet explorer and word processor are enough to get the job done. Unless you’re a computer gamer. Then you’d probably need a cutting edge computer. )
Paying things in full will end up leaving you with a lot of extra cash on hand because you’ll no longer be using it to pay high interest credit cards down. You’ll also be more free to do the things you want because you won’t have as many financial obligations pressuring you to work everyday. ( If your self-employed or own your own business you’ll soon find living the lifestyle of paying things in full to be very rewarding. )
Live your life for you and not the Jones.
It’s alright to be a little competitive in life, however it should not be one’s life goal to out do everyone around them. Live your life for you! If you find yourself feeling miserable when your friend or family starts to seemingly be doing better than you, than you are still in a competitive mindset with your life, and finances. Your comparing your life to someone else. ( Which is very unfair of you to do to yourself! ) The thing is your life is not meant to be a constant competition with others.
If you can start focusing on your own success and goals. You’ll end up being a lot better off. You’ll feel no pressure to try and “be better” than your friends, family or neighbors. You want the nice life for the joy of it being in your life. That’s what living your life for yourself means. If you feel the need to buy things to impress others than you are not living for yourself. You are now living for the people “you think” your competing with. ( AKA Trying to be like the Jones. )
Don’t live a lie. Be honest with yourself.
A lot of people would have more wealth simply if they were more honest with themselves. This is similar to what I just said about trying to be like the Jones, however it’s a little different.
Most Americans take on far to much debt in order to look like they are living a life of wealth. They drive the nice cars, have the nice home, and have a bunch of nice things. Unfortunately, they are on an extremely tight budget that can easily be knocked off track with the simplest of changes. It’s like they are constantly on a tight rope, and one minor slip up could cause the illusion that has been well crafted to collapse. They constantly live a life of fear worrying that this could happen.
If you can just live your life buying what you can afford while holding onto the vision of what you’d like, your life to truly be you’ll be able to avoid this. Your vision will guide you eventually to all those nice things and you’ll be able to realistically afford it and have the extra money to feel secure and safe. You’ll feel like you have room to breathe instead of walking the tight rope. So I highly recommend just being honest with yourself. If you can’t afford it with cash alone- then don’t buy it.
Start your own business, and become your own boss.
When it comes to financial freedom this is truly where it’s at. By being a business owner you can set your own times and be your own boss. Now I know starting a business for some can be easier said than done. ( Especially if you have no experience starting a business. ) However, I highly recommend putting forth the effort to learn the ropes. The rewards you reap WILL be HUGE.
Part of being financial free is making money the way you like to make money. It’s all about doing things on your own time. Having your own business will give you that kind of freedom.
Conclusion
There are many other ways to financial freedom. I suggest reading as much as you can on the subject. Try to find the techniques and philosophy that best suit you. Most of all try to develop your own. Some of the most wealthy people created their own unique ways of acquiring wealth. I also recommend that you keep thinking big. The fact that you are reading this article means that you are already on your way to being financially free, because you are at least thinking about it. Many people don’t even give a lot of thought to it so their finances NEVER change. Good luck!
What is this stuff?
July 22nd, 2008 at 9:01 pm
I liked most of all in this article what you said about paying things in full, and about living for what is true for you, not trying to keep up with the Joneses. My wife and I gradually got out of the habit of living these two principles. However, recently, we met with a CPA financial planner, and in the course of taking inventory of our finances, we are on a much more solid footing, having paid off one credit card, and making a big dent in the last one that we need to deal with. Once we had our spending plan (budget) in place again, and once we went back to our old habit of using cash only to pay for things, we both looked at each other with a sigh of relief, and both said, “Isn’t it great to be financially free again!?”