New studies show thankfully an average 71% of Americans are adequately prepared for retirement.
But what if you don’t want to work another forty years to get there and you want to achieve financial freedom today?
While it’s not easy, it is possible. Here’s what you can do to achieve financial freedom and success in 2021.
Define Your Success
Not everyone needs to be a CEO or run their own business. You may not want that, and that’s okay.
But in order to achieve total financial freedom, you need an idea of how much that would cost you.
Take a good long hard look at your life and what you need to comfortably live. Maybe it’s not as much as you think.
Make a Plan
The first step to financial freedom is creating a plan. A financial freedom plan will break down how much you need to be invested in order to live sustainably on 4% of the interest and dividends.
Once you have that number, you can start to figure out how much you need to invest each year to reach financial freedom in a set amount of time. Many people found they could achieve financial freedom by 30.
Start Investing
Investing has never been so accessible. No matter how little you have, you can start investing today through apps like Acorn, Robinhood, WeBull, or Stash.
Remember each institution has their own fees, and when it comes to retirement, small fees can eat up thousands of dollars.
Keep in mind that all forms of investing have their place. You may want to consider an alternative real estate investment, bonds, or stocks.
Play Offense and Defense
In order to save and invest as much as possible, you need to play both offense and defense when it comes to your finances.
Offense is what you can do to go out and earn more money. This includes things like picking up a side-hustle like delivering food or mowing lawns or babysitting. It also includes your salary, or bonuses or raises you can earn.
Defense is about keeping money from going out. Defense includes canceling subscriptions, meal prepping, and finding ways to cut back on expenses.
in order to achieve financial freedom as quickly as possible, you need to do both. When invested over forty years or more, every penny adds up.
Hustle Hard
Unless you’ve found a way to live well below the poverty line, you’ll likely still need a lot of money to achieve financial freedom. But remember, work hard, keep your head down, and you can spend the rest of your life knowing you’re financially prepared for anything.
You Can Achieve Financial Freedom
All it takes to achieve financial freedom is a bit of math, a lot of planning, and even more hard work. But it’s not a fairytale pipedream. And you’re already working hard anyway, you might as well set a plan to make the most of it.
What do you want to learn about next? Leave your thoughts below!
