What’s your plan to be financially independent? For many of us, winning the lottery seems to be in the top five ways to have a comfortable retirement. That, or maybe getting adopted by Jeff Bezos.
If you’re not that lucky, or you’re not going to develop a million-dollar mobile phone app game or become the next big YouTube star, then you’ve got some work to do.
If that million-dollar inheritance isn’t coming, then the first thing you need to do is save. It’s not easy, especially in today’s COVID world, but bottom line the biggest, but most correct way, is to spend less than you earn. WHAT? Yeah, it’s true. Living within your means and aggressively paying down debt helps you generate a positive cash flow, which can also assist you in purchasing long-term appreciating assets like real estate.
Most people who become wealthy from nothing are driven to succeed, not only in their chosen profession, but also by finding ways to increase their means beyond just a monthly paycheque. A side hustle, a second job, overtime, and passive income (from rental properties or investments) are ways to start to generate more income to help you start stacking it into savings to build that foreign concept… wealth.
Once you manage to build savings you need to grow it, so it can become that passive income. Investing with a long-term strategy will help and asking for help is the first step. Connect with our investment specialists at PlanWright for their expertise, and they can help you develop a portfolio and truly create long-term wealth. If you want to have long-term appreciating assets, then talking to our Encompass Credit Union mortgage experts is a good step in that direction.
Starting your own business is a way, if successful, to become more independently wealthy, but there are many steps that need to be assessed before you take that plunge. Our Encompass Business Account Managers are experts in what needs to be done before you take that step. As well, there are many business consulting tools available online to help you have a better understanding of what it takes to be prepared to open a business that will survive and succeed. It takes much more than just a place to rent and some product to sell. Ta da!
Set goals, and drive towards them with gusto, since no one is at the end handing out free money. Right? All the cheesy money cliché’s are correct. As long as you don’t mix up your metaphors, “money doesn’t grow on trees”, “there’s no free lunch”, “a penny saved is a penny earned”, “if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is” and “it takes money to make money”.
If your lottery dreams haven’t panned out, you probably better start setting your goals and get to work. You can do it, you need a plan and the personal drive to follow through. There will be setbacks and bumps in the road – talk about mixing your metaphors – but you just have to stay the course.
