Everyone Can Get Financial Freedom, Here's How!

Financial Freedom is not Just About Retiring Early

      Financial freedom is a condition where you can fulfill your life needs without having to worry about financial conditions.(investopedia.com)

Many people associate financial freedom with early retirement. However, it's just one of the things you can get when you have financial freedom. Your other dreams include traveling to exotic places, having a nice house, being able to guarantee a decent life for your family. You can do all of that if you achieve financial freedom.

Financial freedom includes many things in life, not just about retirement. This is because financial freedom is related to values and goals that you want to achieve in life.

When you are financially independent, you can buy “time” to be freer to pursue your desires. So imagine, every time you wake up in the morning, you can say, “I can do whatever I want today.”

Financial freedom is a matter of managing and aligning money towards a life that makes you do what you want.

Everyone has the opportunity to achieve financial freedom, even for those of you who do not earn very high income.

How to have the Mindset to Achieving Financial Freedom?

Having the mindset to achieve financial freedom is not instantaneous. It's been a long marathon. The ultimate goal of financial freedom is not about having an abundance of wealth. It's more than showing off on a luxury holiday abroad, or buying a super-luxurious house.

The steps below are not about making you a billionaire, but about preparing you for the future you want, living without worrying about money. You don't have to be a billionaire to achieve financial freedom!

Build harmonious relationships with money

Building a good relationship with money is not much different from building a good relationship with your spouse. This is because both require serious and strong intention and commitment.

It will be difficult for you to feel relaxed--even happy--every time you think about money, if you are still reluctant to "communicate" with your spending habit.

Or, you often "lied" to yourself by saying you had money. Even though you are using an emergency fund to buy new clothes, while the old clothes are still piling up in the closet.

Building a harmonious relationship with money is easy and difficult. There are moments you "fight" with money. However, feeling happy for having enough money to do anything is one of the best feeling ever.

This is not much different from the tips for getting along with your partner, the first step to building a money-friendly relationship is asking yourself, what do you really want money to do?

Everyone of course has a different answer. There's no right or wrong answer. Because everyone has a different perspective on money.

The answer to the above question must come from your personal motivation.

Your relationship with money is a very personal thing. In order for you and money to always be intimate, you must put yourself first. Do not let you not think about what you really want to get from money, just because other people say.

Turn Your Wish into a Goal

When you have found answers about what you want from money, now is the time to turn your desires into goals.

Desire is something more abstract and tends not to be detailed. Meanwhile, goals have a clear and specific “end” state.

For example, you have a desire to buy a car, the goal of that desire is a year from now to have a car.

The difference between the two is simple, in goals, you only give a time gap. However, this has a big impact, because now you have goals and reminders to start moving towards those goals.

The more detailed your goal, the more eager you will be to achieve it.

If you're not used to having a goal, you can start with small things first.

If the goal of buying a car feels too big, you can have smaller goals, like buying the latest game console, or eating at a fancy restaurant with your partner.

The essence of having a goal is not how big it is, but how personal and close it is to what you want

Each person has different desires and dreams. So, there's no need to force yourself to have a specific goal just because other people want it too.

Arrange an Ambitious and Realistic Action Plan

Develop an action plan to achieve your goal. However, often there are "obstacles" that like to approach.

first obstacle,

Your action plan is too ambitious, even to the extent that it is impossible to achieve it.

The second obstacle

Your action plan is too "easy" and it actually makes you not enthusiastic to live it.

This is what makes you have to find a sweet spot between the two when preparing an action plan.

Of course, to know the sweet spot, you must first know your spending habits when managing your finances. Are you the type that likes to spend extravagantly at the start of payday? Or are you the type who tends to have stable spending for a month?

As a start to managing finances, you can try to do some of these steps:

1. Start saving 10-15% of your earnings.

2. Pay off your debts.

3. Understand your cash flow and apply the appropriate budget.

4. Investment (seriously, compound interest is very powerful!).

5. Regularly review the financial condition.

Have you Done the Financial Freedom Steps Above? Now what?

Make sure you are consistent in doing it. One way to be consistent is to make sure that the mindset you have is in accordance with the conditions of your current life.

To find out, you can do regular reviews. Look again at your relationship with money, your goals, and your action plans. Are you still comfortable doing it? Or, you feel you have to upgrade?

It is important for you to do this, because as time goes by, it is possible that the meaning of your financial freedom will change.

Currently, the meaning of financial freedom for you may be that you have enough funds to live your daily life as someone who is single. However, this can change when you are married and have children.

In fact, without changing your status, the meaning of your financial freedom can change.

The meaning of financial freedom for you has now grown, not only about having enough funds for your daily life, but also being able to take a vacation abroad once a year. This of course makes you have to draw up an action plan and a new way to manage finances.

The golden rule for being a financially successful person is living by the principle of spending less than you earn, and being patient.

Be patient first to consistently carry out the steps to build a "smart" mindset about money, and have fun later because you have achieved the financial freedom you dream of.