A Practical Guide to Financial Independence
Ready to take control of your finances? Stop procrastinating and learn how to manage money like an adult. This book is your guide to financial independence, whether you're just starting out or already have some debts.
What do you learn in this book?...
verybody wants to sell you something. Businesses go out of their way to make their products
appeal to your emotions and convince you to buy what you have no use for. Ads pop up
everywhere to tell you how much your life will change if you get a product or subscribe to a
service.
Marketers even influence our culture and tastes strategically and make us accept certain
standards that are unreasonable when observed logically. That is why almost everybody
believes expensive cars, clothes, and gadgets are the true measure of success. And in
trying to meet all these unrealistic expectations that have become a standard in our society,
many people have gotten themselves in debt up to their eyeballs.
If you want to become financially independent, you must stop thinking like everyone else and
become more deliberate about your choices. The simple truth is, if you keep buying things
you don't need because you feel they are in vogue, you will find it hard to build wealth.
Don't let devious marketers and advertisers turn you into a consumer. Start thinking like a
unique human with dreams and values that matter.
You can gain control of your money by spending it solely on things that matter to you.
Being a grownup about your money starts with figuring out what is important to you and
spending in line with it. People who don't do this strive to live up to unrealistic standards and
never attain financial freedom. This summary will help you discover the secret of money and
how you can start paving your way to financial independence starting today.
Building wealth with smart habits
The basic thing you need to understand if you want to become financially independent is
how money works.
According to Sam Beckbessinger, there are three simple things the wealthy teach their
children about money, and those are the things you need to know. Here they are:
• How you save money (assets)
• How you grow money (compound interest)
• How to protect your investments (diversification)
Now, let's take a closer look at each of these keys to financial freedom.
Society teaches us to confuse income with wealth. But it’s not the same thing at all.
The first thing you need to internalize about wealth is that no one can earn their way to
financial freedom. Unless you land in a financial windfall or have a genie at your command,
you have to save.
, You could amass all the wealth in the world, but if you fail to set aside a portion of that
wealth, you'll never have the opportunity to accumulate riches. Conversely, even if your
income is modest, you can attain financial liberation by exhibiting the self-discipline required
to save a greater portion of your earnings.
Now, it's time to get familiar with your cash flow.
Your cash flow is made of two things:
• Income (money in)
• Expenses (money out)
People whose expenses are greater than or equal to their income are, as Sam Becbessinger
puts it, “wage slaves.” Even if a wage slave earns a million dollars monthly, they are always
a paycheck away from going flat broke. They live from paycheck to paycheck. Once wage
slaves run into a problem with their paychecks, they resort to borrowing money, which leads
to debt and takes them even further away from financial freedom.
Another thing you have to be familiar with is your balance sheet, which also comprises two
elements:
• Your properties (assets)
• Your debts (liabilities)
Your net worth is the difference between your assets and your liabilities. To classify
something as an asset or a liability, ask yourself, “Will this put money into my pocket (an
asset) or take money out of my pocket (a liability)?”
Anticipate and save for major life expenses, like education or a home.
To build wealth and carve your path to financial freedom, you have to spend less than you
earn and save the difference by moving it over to your balance sheet — that is, by using it to
reduce debt or buy an asset.
In essence, the amount you earn matters little unless you're retaining a substantial portion
and constructing a robust foundation of assets. That is the pathway to financial
advancement.
Grow your money by making it work for you
American investor and business tycoon Warren Buffett famously said that people who don’t
learn to make their money work for them will work until they die.
The truth is that most of us are only taught how to make money and spend it almost
immediately. We are ignorant of the fact that our money is a tool to make more money. That
is why most people spend their whole life toiling without financial independence.
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