5 Simple Steps To Financial Independence

So you want Financial Independence but don’t know where to start? This is it. I keep it simple, practical. Just useful stuff I collected in my journey towards financial freedom.

This is where we start

There are a ton of videos and blogs out there about financial independence. It seems like there are abundant # of people just crushing it. But how do I achieve the same? Honestly, the information was out there but I had the hardest time piecing them together. All I saw were bunch of MZ generation kids (and some X gen, some even babyboomers) making millions and millions of dollars through digital economy.

Panic, regret…

But, the more I looked and more I tried, the more I failed. And I felt like I was just dumb and just too far behind to ever really achieve financial independence. I started to get discouraged and worried. Actually more like a panic. Followed by a deep sense of regret that I just wasted so many years before realizing how deep the shit I was in.

Don’t be discouraged

Then, one day, I just said fuck it. I started to think maybe reaching FI is like reaching any other goals in life; maybe I can break it down into smaller tasks with timelines. Maybe I just try to make things as simple as I can so that I can actually start moving forward instead of feeling sorry and worrying.

So, that’s what I did and that’s what this is about.

I recommend you bookmark this page and use it like your landing page to guide you as you go through your FI journey.

By the way, if you are dropping by for the first time, as a quick intro, I have been living like the poor dad from Rich Dad, Poor Dad (by Robert Kiyosaki). I had a successful 9-to-5 corporate job for 26+ years but I was not successful in building my net worth. You can read more about me here.

I share this with you because in case you are in a similar situation (i.e., feeling old without much net worth), I want you to know you are not alone and…

It’s never too late to be what you might have been.

George Eliot (by the way, did you know that George Eliot is a woman?)

What is important is that you finally woke up to your financial situation and you are ready to do something about it.

You’ve come to the right place

Let’s begin.

5 Simple Steps To Financial Independence

Here are the 5 simple steps to financial independence.

Learn

Initial step is to do some research in this topic. You need foundation knowledge to be able to take action. And there are tons of resources out there. Books, blogs, podcasts, courses… you name it, it’s out there. But going through each takes a lot of time. So the important thing is to weed out useless information and get straight to the helpful contents.

To save you time, I am compiling a list of stuff I found helpful:
10 best blogs to achieve financial independence

Besides the tangible materials, you will also need to keep motivated. Financial Independence is a long journey, a lifestyle change. It is not a short term project. And you will go through periods where you will get bored, burn out, lose focus.

During those periods, you need to fine tune your purpose, motivation, and discipline – the self improvement & self discipline stuff is that intangible force to keep you moving effectively towards your goal.

Plan & Track

Once you have obtained some knowledge on Financial Independence, you need to get to work. This second step is like setting up your financial independence roadmap. You need to first find out where you are. And you need to decide where you want to be.

In Financial Independence terms these are figuring out your current net worth and then setting your financial goal and budget.

Once you’ve done that, you can create a system that integrates into your lifestyle with milestones, timelines, and celebrations.

Increase Income

Perhaps one of the most important component to FI – you need to increase income. Why? Your current day job is most likely not sufficient to bring you to financial independence. Also, there is no guarantee that you will have your job with your current salary forever. Trading your time for money is inefficient and limited.

Instead, you are gonna need to build a fortress (multiple) income stream that withstands the times. And with the recent advancements in technology, this is becoming easier and more of the norm than exception.

There are several ways to increase income but, the following are the ways I am pursuing:

1. Getting raises and bonuses from your 9 to 5 or doing side hustles on weekends
2. starting an online content business (Blog, YouTube, etc.)
3. selling digital assets (eBooks, print-on-demands, etc.)

Cut Expenses

This has been one of the most overlooked areas for many people. No matter how much money you are making, if you do not control your expenses, you will never have enough. You will never reach financial independence.

Most people who achieved the so called Financial Independence, got there not by earning billions of dollars but, by being frugal and living with minimalism mindset. Yes, that’s why we do budgeting.

In order to minimize your expenses, there are couple of areas like working your budget, efficient credit card spending, and tax avoidance strategies.

Invest Wisely

When can you truly say you are financial independent? It’s when your investments can generate enough money for you to pay all your expenses and vacations and emergencies. If you can have consistent income coming in from your IRAs, ETFs, Bonds, Properties, etc. that’s when you can say you are financially independent. This is where you want to be.

That’s it.

Use the above as your guide to help you through your financial independence journey.

Now, if you are still unsure about the philosophical side of Financial Independence… Like why you need to do this or when you should start this journey… then suggest you read this post: What, Why, When?

If you have a few mins, I encourage you to take the preliminary quiz on Financial Independence knowledge. It will help you to assess how much you know.

Feel free to subscribe to my newsletter. I don’t send many newsletters. I am still busy fine tuning this blog. But, by subscribing, you will be reminded and it will help you to keep focused and accountable throughout your journey.

Welcome aboard.