Do you lay in bed at night thinking about money? Do you get stressed on Sunday evening knowing you have to go back to work Monday morning?
Maybe you do, maybe you don’t. It really doesn’t matter if you’re a financial rock star or on the financial rocks — we all want the same thing: financial freedom.
But what’s stopping you?
I was reviewing my finances today and thinking about how much harder I’m going to need to work to hit that financial freedom mark. Right now, I’m not even close. So I started mapping out a plan to accelerate my journey. Here’s what I need to do:
•. Earn more money
If you you can’t save or invest a decent chunk of change each month, then you have one of two problems. You either 1) spend too much money or 2) don’t make enough money. I’ve got my expenses under control, so now I need to ramp up my earnings.
Luckily, over the past couple months I’ve taken on more work and will soon start to see the financial benefits. This should leave me with something extra per month to save or invest.
• Build passive income sources
Ever since I’ve gotten into personal finance, passive income has been on my mind.
Earlier this year, I started buying dividend stocks — but now I’m looking to be a little more creative. You see, with stocks you have to put down a bunch of money to earn anything decent. For me, that’s not possible.
Instead, I’m more interested in earning other sources of passive income. I’m currently working on an ebook, and I’d like to have around five books available on Amazon in the next year. I’m also saving for a possible investment property. Both of these would only be considered semi-passive income — because there’s some work involved — but these are the most appealing options to me.
• Pay cash for a house
I live in the rural Midwest, where homes are fairly cheap. Ideally, I’d like to have a house on at least five acres of woods; I want a mini farm where I can raise my children and have my forever home. At the moment, properties like these are going for N4 million to N10 million.
I’m going to put my passive income earnings into a separate savings account for a house. I’d like to have enough money to either pay cash or put a sizeable down payment on a house in the next five years.
• Double my retirement contributions
Right now, I’m only adding N10,000 per month to my IRA. (But like I said, I’ve also been saving for an investment property and buying dividend stocks in a personal investing account.)
Since I’m starting at such a small number, I think it’d be feasible to double my retirement contributions every year for at least the next three years. After that, I’ll have to re-evaluate.
• Stay focused, while still enjoying life
In the grand scheme of financial freedom, one of the most important aspects to me is that I enjoy living my life. I’m not going to skip out on every single purchase and start hoarding pennies in hopes of “making it” someday. Instead, I want to live my life to the fullest Today— while still maintaining focus on my goal of financial freedom.
