My 5 Steps to Financial Freedom
Financial Freedom, contrary to what people who are often selling something to you say is not accessible or reachable for everyone.
However, if you are reading this you are likely one of the lucky ones.
I believe, that as much as hard work, pivoting and preserving can lead to life-changing opportunities for the majority of us, even if we aren’t born with unique advantages, it is your location that can impact whether you have a shot or not.
Without divulging too much into this, there are people in 3rd world countries who sadly will not have access to the resources or ability to acquire the resources you have, and can do after this post simply due to their lack of luck, being born in a place they had no control over.
So at the very least, I hope this makes you feel a little gratitude before you continue to change your life through this post, as I firmly hope you are ready and willing to apply these to your life.
So financial freedom, two words that for some of us inspire us to work around the clock, chugging coffee throughout the day in hopes that our compounding actions and perseverance gives us that big break we are after.
For others, it’s just an elusive term used by those who have “made it”. I am here to tell you, if your location is not an issue then you need to believe it can become true for you too.
Now according to Google Financial Freedom is:
“Financial freedom usually means having enough savings, financial investments, and cash on hand to afford the kind of life we desire for ourselves and our families. It means growing savings that enable us to retire or pursue the career we want without being driven by earning a set salary each year.”
Now for myself initially my goal was to just replace my living costs and ensure that if I ever needed to be around my loved ones, for extended periods of time, requesting time off from the hierarchy that exists in the corporate world would not be on my to-do list and I could choose how I lived out my days.
For more context on the above, maybe I’ll write something in the near future.
But the process of achieving the life I have now was simple and I will break it down into 5 steps.
1. Reducing unnecessary expenditure
Now unless your my dad’s sister, who I adore before I get in trouble, you will be spending money on a daily, weekly and monthly basis that is unnecessary.
In order to really strive for financial freedom, this is key, regardless of it seems like you are having to take a step back.
Sometimes, I use the analogy of the elastic band — in order to go further we must pull back ever so slightly before we push on again.
Now the task is simple. Reduce your direct debits, that aren’t essential to your life and simply just something you likely picked up when you got a job or a promotion.
Look at reducing your bills utilising comparison websites and money-saving expert advice.
Call up your service providers and see if they can help reduce your outgoings. Even a few £ or $ saved here can instantly start to help you create the initial buffer that you need.
And here is a list of some of the things I reduced:
- Magazine subscriptions. Yes, they were still a thing back then.
- Weekly drinking with friends. Being antisocial was a sacrifice I had to make but it instantly saved me £75-£100 every weekend.
- Cancelling Netflix. Yes, I used my mom's account.
- I did the same for Sky.
- Buying clothes every month. The fact was, my new lifestyle didn’t need me to buy more clothes. I wasn’t on a catwalk, I was able to get away with wearing the same few clothes weekly.
And I could go on. But just the above saved me in excess of £600 a month!
2. Look at how your living
Now at this point, I had just brought a brand spanking 4 bedroom house. It was a dream house for my wife and I and one which we felt we would keep for many years…..
Until of course I had other plans of financial freedom. Now when we sat down and planned this 5-year strategy of becoming financially free, and choosing how we live out each day, we made a conscious decision to stop decorating the whole house.
Yes, we simply furnished our bedroom, the living room and kitchen! The rest of the house, when we sold it 4 years down the line looked exactly the same.
Why spend unnecessary money, on a home we would not be making use of?
3. Create a source of income
Now if you need to remain in your job for now, or get a part-time job, to allow you to work on your side hustle, given your monthly expenses aren’t as high now then do it!
I utilised my personal training skills by selling plans, taking on classes and doing 1–2–1 work with various clients.
I also project managed the occasional renovation for clients as I was working in Property full-time and had the experience to do so.
Things you could do could include:
- Renting a room out in your house?
- Selling art work, or creating unique products on websites like Etsy.
- Working from home with flexible hours on call centre jobs to just keep yourself afloat whilst reducing commute time and expenses.
4. Have an end goal in mind
This is the tough part, but this is what keeps you accountable. Write down your desired day, date and time for when you wish to leave your work and live a financially free life.
Then work backwards.
Look at your new-found outgoings, your savings you have a monthly basis and calculate how much you need to make the necessary payments on a monthly basis.
Once you have this figure, you may surprise yourself that even the prospect of reducing days or hours at work can start imminently.
But make sure you have a strategy or plan around what you do with that spare time.
If you do not utilise that time effectively, you will be stuck in the same position. Remember every time you make a decision, you need to make it intentionally and know why.
For myself, giving up a fulltime salary meant I had to do a certain number of personal training sessions a week and then find a property deal at least every 6 months.
I did both, but I was only able to do this due to having a plan written down.
5. Execute.
Most often or not, we want our hands held. This is why gurus do so great selling mentorship, coaching or their freedom courses promising you a life of riches and wealth.
I am here to tell you that regardless of how much money you want to waste on the above, there will still be a requirement for you to put in the hard work!
I can tell you in 60 seconds how to get 6pac abs and increase your strength by 25% in 12 months, regardless of where you are starting. (12 months is the most extreme)
But information is worthless, without action and the plan you write down now needs to be executed on. If you need to make x sales, in order to replace your income, break that into weeks and days to give yourself targets that you need to crush in order to get that lifestyle you are currently after.
To conclude:
So for myself, it took me 6 months longer than my plan had suggested. But having anxiety as my shadow means I am always thinking worst-case scenario so I had planned for another year, in case it did not work out.
Self-employment and entrepreneurship were definitely new to me, and my family. I was embarking on something I had little exposure about so the fact I had a few limiting beliefs and doubts was a normal thing.
But thankfully my work ethic and perseverance paid off. No magic secret, no hidden tricks or tips, just hard work and focus.
Now I am a firm advocate of helping others get to where I am. But I really hate selling stuff. Maybe by the time you read this, id have upgraded my own thoughts and beliefs around selling and have something tangible.
But until then, if you have made it this far, firstly thank you and secondly check out the following channel:
The Anxious Investor
