Financial freedom, financial independance you have probably heard this called lots of different things over the years.
For some they associate this term linked to multi level marketing (MLM) companies, and there is pretty much a multi level marketing opportunity for everything. Financial services, accountant services, utilities, health and well being, coffee, the list goes on and I know people involved in many of these sectors, and for the most part they earn incredible incomes from what they do.
For others financial freedom is about choices, lifestyles, not having to worry, and hundreds of other terms. If that is what financial freedom means to you then who am I, or anyone else to argue.
I saw a friend on Facebook named Brad Burton talking about financial freedom and asking for peoples thoughts. If they knew anyone who was in a position of financial freedom who had quit working. Brad Burton is kind of like Marmite you will either love him or hate him but rest assured he has some stories to tell. You can head over to his business page (heres the link) and grab a free download of his Amazon top rated business books as audio-files, and if you’re lucky, it’s still available.
Brad Burton has built a networking company (4N) which holds over 5000 events each year, and is now a respectable public speaker working with some of the UK’s biggest and brightest companies, go check him out.
So after seeing some of the posts on Brads feed it got me wondering about Financial Freedom and what it really does mean to others, and if people actually understand it.
I have a golden rule and have done for several years now and it goes like this:
“If you’re going to take advice from someone, you better be sure they are getting phenomenal results for themselves from the advice they’re giving you”.
Here’s the stumbling block for most people out there giving advice, they’re happy to tell you how to invest your money, what to do with your spare time, yet don’t do it themselves. When they do, they get terrible results. So why would you take advice from them? I mean you wouldn’t take advice from a financial advisor who was flat broke… would you?!
Let me be 100% honest with you, I don’t drive a Ferrari, or a Lamborghini, I don’t live in a £5m property but what I do have is phenomenal results from what I do. I have a respectable £35,000 new car which I get every two years. I have built a property portfolio of 5 houses. I travel upwards of six times a year, and I do the things I love every day.
If you ask me what financial freedom is, it’s about living a lifestyle you really want with the freedom of not worrying about where your next payday will come from. I have multiple streams of income, some from my property portfolio, some from MLM, some from my design agency, some from coaching. However, collectively my income outstrips my expenses which means I can live a life financially free. Sure we all want more and that is totally fine, I say GO FOR IT, but just make sure you’ve got it covered.
I really feel sorry for people who have been educated to live within their means, cut back and save hard, one of my favourite sayings is:
“You can’t move forward when you’re cutting back”
Something inside of us will always want to grow, if you run you want to run faster, if you jump you want to jump higher, you want a nicer car, a better home. My advice is just go and do it, but make sure you top up your residual income to cover that additional expense.
My final thought on this topic is what someone said on the Facebook newsfeed I mentioned earlier: “Do you know anyone who has quit work when financial freedom is achieved” and here’s something that will really blow your mind:
WORKING IS THE WORST WAY TO EARN MONEY!
You should work for satisfaction, you exchange your service for money. Simply exchanging your time for money is the worst possible way to earn a living. Very few people live a satisfying life exchanging time for money, and they go on to wish away life hoping for retirement to arrive quickly so they can do the things they really want to do.
I will talk about work and services in another blog, but for now I will finish by saying that if you are genuinely interested in finding out how to create true financial freedom in your life, then why not join me on the 18th March for my FREE two hour seminar in Sheffield – FIND OUT MORE HERE