Financial independence is a state in which an individual or household has sufficient wealth to live on without having to depend on income from some form of employment.
Many people can not grasp financial independence from a job. There are other ways to make a living besides employment with a job. While it is a necessity to have a job to pay bills for most people it does not have to be permanent situation. Jobs are great tools for getting the money to pay necessary bills but do not have to be a way of life forever. All jobs in the private sector come from businesses and there is another side of the table an employee can eventually move to. You can be an investor and buy the stock of publicly traded companies to benefit from the earnings that employees work so hard to achieve. You can also trade stocks to benefit from the price action of trends. You can also start your own business and benefit from the labor of employees. You can create your own job through self employment where you remove yourself from the corporate pyramid scheme and your new boss becomes your customers. Employee is not the only path just one of several others.
Here are ten key steps to financial independence:
- Open your mind to other possibilities besides working until you die.
- Save a larger portion of your income in tax deferred investment accounts to build wealth. One day that account could create your new stream of cashflow.
- Invest in the best companies.
- Learn how to stay long in bull markets and go to cash in bear markets
- Take out a 15 year mortgage on a house so you can make quick progress paying it off.
- Don’t waste money, spend your money for things that are of only of high value to you.
- Marry life partners that share your financial goals and add value to your life.
- Do not get yourself trapped so deep in debt that you can never afford to try something new besides your job.
- Use your hard earned money to eventually buy back your time from a job instead of indulging in material things you don’t need and new toys.
- You don’t have to be an employee only, you can also be an investor, trader, business owner, and self employed.
Financial independence happens the day that you have enough money to walk away from your job and do whatever you want. You don’t need enough money to do nothing, you just need enough money to do whatever you want.