Money is very important, but should one spend the whole of his life working for money?
For most of us who do regular 9 to 5 jobs, our work gives us little or no time to do many other things we love to do with our lives.
If our job will not allow us to do what we need or desire to do with our lives but we still need the money from our job to pay our bills. Then what do we do? The answer is we need to figure out other ways to meet our financial needs apart from our job and this is what financial independence is all about
There are so many reasons why we need to be financially independent. I will focus on just three in this article.
One, our job cannot be there permanently to meet all of our life financial needs. We mostly start with a job after graduating from school. The truth is long after our job is over we will still continue to have financial needs. Someone has said that a job is a short term solution to money which is a long-term problem.
Secondly, it is to enable us to meet our old age financial needs with dignity. Most governments and company pension programs cannot adequately meet our financial needs as we grow older.. Such financial needs as healthcare, personal care will continue to increase as we grow older while income may have declined drastically after our employers have retired us.
The worst thing anyone would do to himself or herself is to wait for family members, children or the government to take care of his or her financial needs when one is old. This is a recipe for losing one’s personal dignity
Thirdly , it helps to make our lives count and fulfilled. For most of us, there are many things we would have loved to do with our lives . There are places you would have loved to go, people you would have loved to help , impact you would have loved to make but your job will not allow you because of time constraints. There might be some latent potential dreams and aspirations which your 9 to 5 job will not even allow you to pursue them. It is said that life is a coin, you can spend it anyway you wish, you can only spend it once . I agree with that saying. In fact, I would add that you can spend your life fulfilling your purpose, life aspiration and dream while allowing your money to work for you .The alternative is to spend time working for money all your life . Today I feel much more fulfilled to realize my aspiration as a public speaker became possible because I embarked on the journey of financial independence a few years ago, and I am still pursuing it.
The question is where do I start if I want to embark on the journey of financial independence.
The place to start is to develop a plan and in this case I will be sharing with you five simple strategies that could help you to get started. Just as they helped me , they can also help you.
Number one, be intentional about starting with an exit or transition plan that has a time frame. This is called a high level plan. In other words from where you are, determine the time you would like to exit your 9 to 5 job . That could be three years, five years or whatever time frame you desire. For my husband and I that time frame was five. Yes, we planned it for my husband to go first and then my own transition followed a few years after. So our time frame was different, but we started the journey at the same time
Secondly , decide the assets class you want to focus on and start learning about it. When you are doing 9 to 5 as a means of earning money, you are the assets. To become financially independent, you need to shift that assets from yourself to one of the four classes of assets that create wealth. These are business, real estate, paper assets, and commodities.
Thirdly, eliminate bad debt fast and start to save. Bad debts is money you owe and you have to pay by yourself and that can keep you on your job to earn money to pay it by yourself. Examples of bad debts include credit card debt. car loans or money borrowed for wedding, birthday and other celebrations and not for investment purposes.
Fourth, get a Mentor, a business coach, or business partner that you can learn from. This is how we learn every other thing we have learned in life. Just like every other area of career development. You learn from medical doctors as a medical student to become a medical doctor You learn from engineers to become an engineer. It is the same way you’ll have to learn from those who are knowledgeable as you start to grow.
Lastly, start taking action where you are and stay in the game, do not quit.. Practice and practice and practice. Initially it may be challenging but as you progress, you become better and more confident . It is said that an imperfect plan that you set in motion is always better than a perfect plan you never begin.
You may be reading this now and you are wondering what you can do even if you have to start. I’d like to encourage you to look inward on your gifts and skills.. What are you most gifted for? Some people are good at music, songs, cooking , baking, hair dressing, teaching, coaching, Uber drive or Uber eats. You can engage in any of this side-by-side with your job, and figure out later how to scale it up and develop a business out of it.
A do nothing strategy is a loser’s strategy.
Someone said you lose a hundred percent of a shot you never attempted. Begin by taking baby steps in things you are good at doing. As I conclude , I have shared with us some of the reasons why we need financial independence. I also shared with us 5 simple strategies to get started with the journey of financial independence
