Financial Freedom? Please.
I’m sure if you ask just about anyone how much money is enough money, you’ll hear phrases like “financial freedom” and “live comfortably” thrown in pretty regularly. What is enough money to you? Enough so you don’t have to work? Enough so your kids’ college funds are full and your 401k is padded? Enough to have a vacation home and a third car?
The sad truth is that the difference between poverty and wealth lies far less in how much you make than in how much you spend. The reason that “the rich get richer and the poor die trying” has less to do with an actual dollar-by-dollar equation than it does the level of wisdom possessed by the person holding those dollars.
It is run-of-the-mill in our current day to take out loans that will take us years to pay off and to open credit card accounts that allow us to spend money we don’t have. Debt is no longer a foreign concept, and as it has become a normality, so have the world’s financial problems. We are not free from our finances, nor will many ever be. We’re chained to our money (or rather, the lack thereof) like slaves, spending much of our lives pursuing the almighty dollar.
“I owe, I owe, so off to work I go.”
- bumper sticker euphemism
That’s not to say that debt is always a bad thing; it can be managed effectively to achieve one’s goals and if kept in check it will allow us to do so. But as human beings, we sometimes have the tendency to always be searching for the next big thing; our one-time break that’s going to send our levels of success and happiness into the stratosphere. The fact is that spending money on temporary happiness doesn’t usually lead to more of it. We slave away at the jobs that take up so much of our time, for the single fact that we’re slaves to the money these jobs provide. By establishing multiple streams income we can start to think differently about the true price of happiness, and the real meaning of success. Contrary to popular belief, having the nicest house with the biggest television doesn’t equal the greatest amount of happiness.
Most people can’t imagine retiring until they’ve bought two of everything they could possibly ever want. My philosophy is to retire first, and then do I want – not the other way around. For now, I’m happy knowing that in a few years I’ll be able to spend my time pursuing what I love and have a passion for, thanks to my multiple streams income, while so many other people who squander their finances inefficiently are still working. Read on to find out about the various ways you can put your money, talents, time and other resources to work for you to create some passive ways to earn money and thrive.