Hands up if you want to be financially free!
When I ask that question in a room packed full of people eager to learn about property investing, everyone puts both hands – and often both feet up in the air! Yet what people end up spending their time doing shows the opposite. Are you willing to embrace pain and setbacks while pursuing financial freedom? If you are not engaged and not inspired, you won’t be able maintain the energy and drive to make it work.
Here are 5 tips to keep you on track:
Make a list of reasons why you want to be financially free. Perhaps you want to be able to send your children to the best school and not the school down the road. Take care of your ageing parents? Save the dolphins? Travel the world? Be able to sleep at night without worrying about how to pay the bills at the end of the month?
Once you have your reason, spend some time thinking about what financially free means to you. How much is enough? There is more to life than chasing money and the last thing I want to do is inspire you to hop on the hamster wheel of chasing more more MORE. Financial freedom is defined as earning enough passive income to cover your fixed monthly expenses. While that sounds amazing, think about how you’d cover adhoc expenses. Travel? Entertainment? Add on a buffer to cover those expenses too.
Decide on a timeline. How soon do you want to be financially free? Is this a 1 year, 5 year, 10 year plan? Your Why will help determine this duration. If there is a really pressing need to have more money, you’ll be more motivated to push to make it work NOW. If you are in your 20’s and want to be financially free, you’ll have plenty of time to make it work and a lot less motivation to make it happen quickly.
Think about how involved you want to be in the process – do you want to get involved in fixing up properties or just finding a property you can rent out with ease. “Passive income” is the dream everyone chases, only to find it vanish like mist in the morning sun. Property investing is not passive. It is hard work. But as my early mentor, Dr Hannes Dreyer told me, “Tanya, it is hard work to be rich. But it is also hard work to be poor!” Be realistic about your involvement based on that stark reality.
Dr Demartini said “Fill your day with challenges that inspire you, you don’t keep attracting challenges that don’t.” It is easy to spin your wheels and be really busy checking off your endless To Do list only to wake up a year later and find yourself no closer to your goals. Spend time every morning thinking about just 5 things you can do to move yourself closer to your goals. It can be as small as make a phone call to as big as meet with the builder to check progress on your latest development. Write your 5 things down, then get them done. Just keep doing 5 things every day, by the end of the month, you will have taken 150 steps towards your goal.
When you have a goal, you do the work. No excuses! Now go create an amazing life by following these simple steps :-)
