Be An Exceptional Saver
It is better to save 20% of your income. Go for automatic saving option that will automatically transfer the set amount of your income into your savings account.
- Keep a crossover chart
Crossover chart is a line graph that lists your income, expenses and your investments. Once monthly investment income has crossed over monthly expenses, you can become financially independent. You can keep this chart on a monthly basis.
- Earn side income
Find ways to earn extra income like doing a part-time job, getting income from doing online surveys, etc. By investing 100% of your extra income into investment or savings, you can become financially independent.
- Know what you can control
Learn what you can control and do not worry about the rest. Your expenses, savings rate and asset allocation are some things that you can control.
- Monetize your passion
Think about what you would like to do once you become financially independent like going on a holiday, starting a travel blog, buying clothes, taking a cricket or football coaching, etc. This will motivate you to become financially independent.
- Think about relocating
It can be favorable and much cheaper option to live outskirts of a city where you are currently residing or moving to nearby city, another state or even another country if you would like to work towards becoming financially independent.
- Take care of your health
Medical bills can be a biggest cause of bankruptcy and debts. You can avoid that by taking care of your health and investing your money into a best health insurance plan.
- Stop impulsive buying
Impulsive buying can be very dangerous and can put a big hole in your pocket. Therefore, you need to understand how importance is to avoid and stay away from impulsive buying if your want to become debt free or financially independent. Stay away from tempted offers and discounts.
- Don’t let your weakness rule over you
According to a financial planner, people need to address personal financial management concerns. So, if you want to turn things around for your benefit, you should have the ability on cut down on unnecessary spending.
- Just be patient
If you are new to financial planning process, understand the fact that you can’t go from zero to sixty overnight. It would take time to apply advance planning techniques in the first week, but as gradually grow all will be sorted. All you need to do is pick up a reasonable and achievable goal and you will get used to achieving small wins on your track to financial independence.
- Be ready for heart-to-heart talk with yourself
In order to become financially independent, you have to have heart-to-heart talk with yourself. You need to clear about what financial independence means to you and you also need to have realistic picture of your current financial situation. You need to develop a series of goals you will help you to become financially independent.
- Know beforehand where you want to go
Becoming financial independent is not a single goal but a series of sub-goals. Your financial life has several facets and in order to reach your goals, you will have to establish goals in several areas of your financial life such as increasing your income, cutting back on unnecessary expenses, paying your loan on time, understanding your saving patterns, determining your financial goals and purchasing best insurance cover for you and your family.
- Learn to live beneath your means
It is one of the most crucial steps that you need to understand while learning how to become financially independent. Get comfortable with whatever you have and just make sure to not spend money more than you earn. You will only need to cut unnecessary expenses in your budget. There are some sacrifices that you need to make now to build your savings for future.
- Always keep your career and business moving forward
It is important to keep steadily increase your income while keeping your spending level as low as you can. This is how you can reach all of your financial goals in a quicker way. Keep your working skills sharp, increase your value to your employer, work hard and put in your best efforts to keep your career and business moving up to the highest level.
- Vow to always save money, no matter what your income is
No matter what your income is, just make sure to save money. If you don’t have room in your budget to save money now, then try to increase your income, lower your expense, or both. You should always be saving money no matter what is happening.
- Create a safety net
If you have been living paycheck-to-paycheck, your first savings goals should be to create a safety net. You can do that by creating an emergency fund. It is a separate account for cash that can be used for unexpected emergencies.
- Diversify your investments
The best way to protect yourself from unexpected surprises that the markets will do in the future is to diversify your investments across several different assets classes. You should have certain amount of money invested stocks, fixed income investments, peer to peer lending, real estate and natural resources.
- Save your income from taxes
The easiest and safest mode to shield your income from taxes is retirement plans. If your employer offers 401(k) match at work, put as much of your income into it as you can. The employer will get you the maximum matching contribution.
- Get out of debt ASAP
It’s hard to become financially independent when you owe money to banks or other financial institutions. You should be ready with the goal of getting out of debt as soon as possible. You can commit to eliminating your credit card debts in five years, eliminating your student or personal loan in 10 years and your mortgage in 15 years. Set a different time horizons for getting out of debts.
- Buy assets that generate income
Whether you invest in stocks, real estate, cash investments or anything else-no investments is foolproof. You will see all ups and downs in the market. Therefore, it is necessary to understand everything you invest in and focus on assets that will help you make money over the long haul.
- Commit to refocusing on your goal at regular interval
It is necessary to be fully committed to your plan if you want to become financially independent. You should be having a written plan that includes goals for each financial category and review them annually. Make sure your goals are on track and keep focusing on your ultimate goal of becoming financially independent.
- Do not take another loan
No matter how the situation is, just make sure not to take any other loan. Even though you make good money, taking another loan means a liability and you can never become financially independent if you keep taking up loans.
- Bulletproof your independence
As you accumulate your money for financial independence, you need to work hard to protect it always. The primary way you can do that is by taking insurance like health, life and auto insurance. But there is also disability and liability coverage available. Disability insurance helps offset the loss of income if you can no longer work due to a disability, and liability coverage is a cushion against lawsuits.
- Get cash-reserve emergency fund
It is a form of insurance where dollars are kept in savings or money market account to see you through emergencies or during unemployment. Thanks to cash-reserve emergency fund you don’t have to dip into retirement accounts or other investments in rainy days.
