Hustlers screwed up financial freedom.
They made us think it was about Lambos and working until 3 am. It’s not. I’ve lived that life. You’ll burnout. Guaranteed.
Financial freedom is having the time to do the real work you want to do. It doesn’t mean living a no-work life. That’s an unrealistic fantasy that will leave you by the jacuzzi, scratching your head, bored out of your brain.
Here’s a practical set of steps you can follow to reach financial freedom.
Start ASAP
If you agree this is the path for you then you need to start right now. Today. Get out your favorite note-taking app and sketch out a series of actions you can take. Each idea is a seed, not a finished plan.
I wish I got on the path to financial freedom sooner. Instead, I wanked away my life with BMWs and designer clothes to impress people that won’t even return my phone calls anymore because I’m not famous. Hollywood and Instagram got it wrong.
Fame destroys privacy. Luxury destroys wealth.
The path back to owning your time is the opposite of what society does. Time to become an outcast.
Be extremely careful of becoming one of the institutionalized sheep
I left work early one afternoon to attend a meeting. All was calm on the office floor. 30 minutes later I got a message.
“The entire level has been shut down. Don’t come back.”
The dude that sat next to my desk had a heart attack. I was sad. This guy always helped me. He had 40 years of experience in his job. He could answer the toughest questions I could throw at him. He made me look smart in front of customers with his fountain of knowledge.
I went to China the next day for a holiday. I texted for updates.
“How’s he doing?”
“Not good.”
Two weeks later he recovered. Phewww. I returned from China.
“So is he finally going to retire now? He’s well past the retirement age. Surely this is a wake-up call to finish work and hang out with the grandkids.”
He told us that the doctors said his obesity and diet were to blame for the heart attack. So to resolve the issue he got a personal trainer. Within a few months he was in the best shape of his life.
The weight disappeared …
Then it slowly began to come back. He returned to the Coca-Colas and the daily greasy hamburgers for lunch. I asked my wise boss about it.
“He’s institutionalized. He can’t see that he’s trapped in this job and way of life. It’s been like this for so long that everything else looks too scary. It’s all he knows.”
The word institutionalized became popular amongst my team of four colleagues. I vowed on that day never to become trapped in the job matrix.
A job is useful. A job you stay in forever is useless.
We’re designed to try new things. A salary you don’t control, from a job that doesn’t keep up with inflation, will eventually make you struggle.
You’ll constantly have to make lifestyle sacrifices if you reject the path of financial freedom forever.
Build your portfolio of skills
You need skills to reach financial freedom. Chances are you can recycle a few skills from your day job or past employment.
What do people say you are good at? Start there. People tell me I can write and teach. So I built my skill stack around these two pillars. The most valuable skills you can get are the ones that work online. Why? Online skills allow you to access leverage.
Same amount of work over time, for the same amount of effort.
The great news is almost any skill can be useful online. All you need is a little creativity and a content strategy.
Learn the language of the internet
The internet has a unique language. It’s based around time. We don’t have enough time because of all the modern-day demands. The language of the internet is, getting to the freaking point.
That’s why I recommend studying Twitter. Tweets and tweet threads are the ultimate form of online communication. They force you to format and make your thoughts gorgeously simple.
Simple saves time. Simple sells.
When you can sell ideas online you can eventually make money online. This leads to passive income. Passive income fuels financial freedom if it’s able to do its work while you sleep (for a few years).
Simple communication goes further. You get better at coffee catch-ups. You write killer emails that cut through all the bullsh*t. You are able to make TikTok style videos, effortlessly. Simple content becomes a magnet for opportunity. Those opportunities create financial upside, eventually.
Takeaway: Learn to get to the point.
Make the subscription economy go bankrupt
If more money comes out of your bank account than enters it, you’ll never reach financial freedom. I take the Rich Dad Poor Dad approach and pay myself first. The money leftover goes to expenses and gelato ice cream. Subscriptions are the worst.
Most of us have a low utilization rate on our subscriptions.
Businesses know that, and they love it. The only ones I keep are ROI subscriptions — the ones that make me actual money.
One strategy I use is to turn recurring expenses into one-off pleasures. I pay once which is more expensive, but I get the pleasure from the investment less frequently. This reduces the dopamine addiction many subscriptions give us.
Cut financial fat ruthlessly.
Tell your banker to F off
I am an ex-banker. We want to do one thing: sell you debt.
Debt isn’t easy to access. Thanks to monetary policy, banks can lend far more money than they actually have on their books.
When times get tough the government will allow banks to lend even more money without anything backing it. In fact, every loan a bank gives creates new money from nothing that enters the global financial system.
That’s right — bank loans are a form of money printing (learn more here).
The more debt you have the longer it will take to access financial freedom. Debt has another huge problem. It causes enormous stress. You can’t effectively reach financial freedom with your skill stack if you’re stressed out of your mind every day. It’s too hard. I choose zero debt.
For most, sustainable debt is the answer.
Put your money to work
Money in the bank is dead. Inflation and the devaluing of currencies by governments turns dollars into roadkill.
Money has to be put to work. We’re now all forced to invest in financial assets — gold/silver, stocks, bonds, real estate, bitcoin/ethereum, etc.
Good quality assets over time become more valuable. Some assets even pay you money at the same time. Financial freedom is heavily dependant on how you invest money.
It all comes down to asset allocation. How much money (as a percentage) are you going to invest in each asset type above?
My desired end game for asset allocation looks like this (roughly): 40% crypto, 5% gold/silver, 25% real estate, 30% stocks.
Invest as early as you can. Money invested in the markets beats timing the right time to enter the financial markets.
Learn the future of tech to capitalize on it
Web 3.0 has changed financial freedom.
With enough research it’s possible to get there sooner. The blockchain Web 3.0 future is much like the early 2000s when Google, Facebook, Apple, and Amazon changed everything. And made investors, who could see where things were going, a lot of money.
Learning Web 3.0 now won’t only give your skill stack a huge advantage. But it can be a tremendous investing opportunity. It’s still so early, yet it’s clear that the future of tech will be decentralized.
I recommend studying bitcoin and ethereum at a minimum. Learn what they do and why they’ve become a trillion-dollar asset class in a short space of time.
An open Web 3.0 mind will allow you to own your time sooner.
Invest in the highest yield asset on the planet
We are the biggest limiter of financial freedom. How we think determines whether financial freedom will become possible.
It’s easy to say it’s impossible or only for special people. There are millions of dumbasses on the internet to talk you out of anything. Ignore them.
Learn to think for yourself by investing in yourself.
Courses, books, virtual summits, and live events are great places to start. Build your knowledge. Expand your understanding of the world.
Dare to dream of a phase in life where you own your time and can do a type of work you enjoy, that doesn’t feel like work.
Work you define as hard is work you hate. Work you love is work you define as effortless. The subtle difference is what financial freedom unlocks and it will change your life.
This article is for informational purposes only, it should not be considered financial, tax or legal advice. Consult a financial professional before making any major financial decisions.
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