Financial Freedom.
No matter what you are currently doing for a living. No matter what how much you enjoy your current job, there will come a time when you have to think about your financial future. I know I have.
Let's face it; we can not rely on our pensions as previous generations might have done.
According to my latest pension statements, my pensions would barely get me beans on toast once a week!
There's the growing number who have to put off retiring way passed the standard retirement age. Working people of pension age have nearly doubled over the last two decades, reaching 1.4 million in 2011, according to the Office for National Statistics. This is only going to increase over the coming decades.
So unless you are one of the lucky few who are already financially secure, you are going to have to stop burying your head in the sand.
What do I mean by Financial Freedom? Well quite simply, having sufficient personal wealth to live indefinitely without having to actively work for food and basic necessities.
With the pension age increasing, I seriously asked myself:
Do I still want to be doing what I'm doing when I'm 65, 67 or even 70!
Well things are not going to change without steps are taken to change them, which is why I have been studying Financial Freedom for the last 3 years. Really, the only question you should be asking is: Why did it take me so long to start. - I mean I have (Sort of) known I need to do something very different, pretty much all my working life, it just never made it to the top of my priority list.
How am I going to achieve Financial Freedom? There are of course many, many roads that will lead in the right direction. You just have to decide on one and then take positive action to travel the road, no-matter what.
The road I'm taking is called Internet Marketing, and I am documenting my journey here in my blog. I will be telling you which courses I am studying and books I'm reading, and will be reporting the good and the bad, the highs and the lows.
Essentially, what we are talking about is starting an Online Business that will bring the required results. As with any business, there is always going to be an investment in both time and money.
It often bemuses me that people are happy to put serious time and money into a hobby or interest, but they are unwilling to invest time and money on their financial freedom.
Take a hobby or sport like golf. In order to get to a good level of proficiency in golf, people will invest in a good set of clubs, a golf bag, maybe also a trolley. Then there is some suitable attire maybe a water-proof jacket (Essential here in the UK lol.) A good pair of golf shoes.
Then they will invest heavily in both time and money in mastering the game. First stop invest in some golf lessons from a pro. After all, the pro knows what they are doing, and can help guide the student on the correct path. Plenty of time is invested at the driving range practicing what has been taught.
Then there is the golf club membership, often a 12 month membership - possibly paid in monthly installments for a suitable surcharge.
And after all, there is still the time required to actually play the game. A round is going to take at least 4 hours at a weekend. And that's before traveling to and from the course, socializing, etc.
When you add it all up, the investment in both time and money is very fundamental, and golf is by no means alone in this. I only chose to pick on golf because I also enjoy playing golf and therefore know first-hand how much time and money it can take up.
And yet if you ask someone to put the same level of time commitment into their financial future, they will think you are mad ... When you ask them to part with the same amount of money that they happily spend on their hobby, to invest in their future happiness, they think you are trying to scam them!
I have seen lots of people who have looked at Internet Marketing as a way of making more money, but somehow expect to get results in Internet Marketing without spending hours and hours of time and effort, to put in the foundations of a business.
Let's be sensible here, you only have one life and you have to enjoy your life. Therefore if it's a warm summer evening, I will not be indoors staring at my computer screen, and I am not suggesting that you lock yourself away at the computer either. - Absolutely not!
You should be out doors enjoying the wonderful sunshine. But if it is a dark cold winter evening, instead of spending the evening sitting in front of the telly, playing computer games or on YouTube watching skateboarding kittens, you can be sure that I am working towards my Financial Freedom.