Financial Independence: Retire Early Even When You Start Late
Financial Independence is the state of financial sufficiency for an individual or family. It is the result of the personal finance discipline of saving, budgeting, and growing your passive income to be able to cover all your living expenses. An extra income stream from side-hustles like Blogging, Domain Flipping, or Freelancing could also make a big difference.
This is a progressive wealth journey spanning a number of years. Some folks start early when they are young; but others join this train later on in life. If you’re above 30, or even in your 40s and 50s, it’s never too late to start to begin the Financial Independence journey. The pundits say late starters get worse returns? Well not exactly. We’ll discover strategies that will help you retire sooner than you ever thought was possible.
Work on a Solid Financial Independence Plan
When you begin your journey to attain financial independence, the first and foremost thing to do it to start with a plan. Create a retirement plan that is made up of a few simple basic elements. There is no need to be fancy here as the plan could be always modified and optimized from time to time.
Consider the following ideas:
Retirement Objective and timelines
Financial Independence goal amount – This is your number! You will build and accumulate wealth toward the savings goal amount within the stipulated time period. Your financial freedom journey might have a few bumps on the road; but we would need to factor a few things into it to give it durability.
A set of objectives that will lead to the ultimate goal
Your goal should be broken down further into other smaller goals. This process will show you that individual units are much easier to tackle that the combined sum – which seems intimidating in the beginning.
Commitments and Resolutions
Furthermore, you need to be committed. I’d say 150% commitment at that. Because anything could happen to derail your entire process. The higher you set these standards the better. However, we must also ensure to operate within realistic expectations. Also, get an financial independence accountability partner to keep you on track along the way.
Be Positive and Optimistic
The most important factor for achieving your financial freedom goals is to have a positive money mindset. Be full of enthusiasm and see the entire process as a worthwhile pursuit that requires 100% commitment. You need to believe in yourself. It is possible because you’re worthy to succeed in this resolve. Yes, you deserve it.
Unleash Your Super Identity
Your super identity is your true self. But take note that it is not your default YOU. Most of us are operating outside our intrinsic identity. The super YOU is that person who was born to achieve greatness. It is the state of mind of firm confidence and energy to take action on your goals. Financial independence becomes an inevitability when you have this sage mindset.
That all familiar nemesis of your super identity is known as your comfort zone. By subduing your comfort zone, you break free to a lot of debilitating mental constructs that were formed over the years that have held you back from personal growth.
Be Consistent
Consistency is key in attaining financial independence. It is useful to note that without this virtue, you could make some progress in your prosperity strides, but have periods of stagnation. The worst part about this stagnation is that it has the power to erode all the hard work you’ve put into your financial mission.
Therefore, become wired to take action on a daily basis. To help you do this, build systems, and automate the process. This includes the automatic cash deductions for your checking or savings account that fuel your financial independence investments.
Learn New Things
You must acquire new skills that you do not already have. You could also double down on your gifts and polish them further. A very significant part of your learning should be done independently. Make use of available self help materials, books, and courses. The low hanging fruits are the free versions of these. Use them and pivot your daily productivity to get good results.
Unlearn Old Habits
In order to learn new financial freedom habits, we must disengage from the old ones. Our current mindsets have a malicious way of keeping new found truths out. Ever heard the expression, “you can’t teach an old dog new tricks?”. Our comfort zone will cause natural resistance to new efforts and new strides if you don’t work at unlearning certain things first.
Seek Guidance from Fi Mentors
In the world of free self help materials, who needs a coach or mentor? The main purpose of a mentor is to help scale faster. The right mentor who had been through the trenches will always use their experience to help you avoid some of their own mistakes. These financial independence guides can be found in real life or on the internet. There are many financially free people online who are will to share their knowledge for free.
Start Young Towards Financial Independence
The younger you start your journey towards financial independence the better. This is because the element of time is an essential factor in compound interest. Compounding your investments require the momentum of time. This should however not hinder the older generation who are starting later. Just take action today. Begin by starting monthly budgeting habit to manage your money. You can also begin to instill financial literacy into your kids while they’re yet young.
Related: Ways to Maximize Retirement Savings: Leverage Investments to Retire Early
Invest In Yourself
As you set up financial independence portfolios, you should also invest in yourself. The best investment is financial literacy hands down. Equip yourself with a reading list of personal finance books and articles. You will build momentum that will give you financial confidence. Ultimately, self improvement by a rate of just 1% per day could give you a growth hack that will pay off massively someday.
The Bottom Line
It takes and whole lot of courage to finally give you permission to get wealth. Financial independence is attainable by anyone who has the desire, and is willing to pay the price to get there. A new set of habits will replace your old ways of managing your money. The asset class that will help you get there begin earning you passive income – and can grow into capital that can be used to get into real estate investing or owning your own business.
At what age do you plan on retiring free money worries? join the conversation in the comments below.
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