Besides waking up at whatever time you want, being financially free also means doing anything you want during your waking hours.
Spend the whole morning reading a book?
Travelling an hour to your favourite restaurant because of cravings?
Take 2 naps a day?
30 day vacation?
Anything. You. Want.
Stop trading your time for money
Financial freedom simply means not exchanging your own time for money. With already limited time that we have, every second is precious! Why not spend that time on the things that you like, love and cherish?
Instead of your usual 9-to-5 grind, being financially free means earning money from other assets that generate wealth. Some examples;
- Dividends from stocks
- Rental income from rental
- Profits from your online business
Of course, it's easier said than done.
And some elbow grease is definitely required to sow the seeds of financial freedom.
Start earlier, so you can enjoy your fruits of labour faster
Because these seeds will not sprout immediately, it's important to start early in life. Regardless of the asset of your choice, they will definitely require time to grow - like all plants.
Once the first leaves have sprouted and roots have dug deep enough into the ground, there is relatively not much work required thereafter. In dense forests, resources like sunlight, rain, nutrients come naturally and usually easily. Getting the seed into the ground is the first and also the hardest step.
For beginners, consider using roboadvisors as they allow small quantums of cash (as small as a $1) and are incredibly low with fees. With your invested cash, you'll be exposed to diverse classes of assets and markets - commonly via ETFs.
Also, they're incredibly easy to use and understand with modern user interfaces compared to traditional digital stock brokerages/exchanges.
🌱 How much is enough for passive income to last me forever?
Diversify to ensure continuous passive income
It's important to have a diversity of financial assets to ensure that the speed of growth of all your seedlings is averaged out so you wouldn't need to wait too long to see the growth of your first fruit!
Murphy's law is an adage or epigram that is typically stated as: "Anything that can go wrong will go wrong."
Things may and will go wrong so it's important to have many seeds planted to ensure that a single failure will not thwart your plans to financial freedom.
Once you're comfortable with roboadvisors, get out of your comfort zones and study other financial instruments such as individual stocks, REITs, and ETFs.
Remember not to rush as putting your hard earned money into the wrong instrument (and sometimes at the wrong time) may spell trouble!
No pain, no gain.
Perspective from the undergrowth
Being a small plant in the undergrowth isn't easy.
Competition is aplenty and resources are not as abundant as compared to large towering trees that are exposed to direct sunlight.
Thus, it's important to start young. The earlier you start, means that you'll be exposed to more opportunities to grow and compound your wealth over time.
However unlike plants, we do not have many decades or centuries but only a few decades to grow our personal wealth.
Time can be a very challenging adversary is mismanaged however, can be an extremely powerful ally if utilised well.