Freedom is not a right or a privilege. It has to be earned and fought for. Freedom is relative. You may think you have freedom when in fact, you don’t. Did anyone feel free during the mandatory lockdowns and stay-at-home orders during COVID?
The truth is freedom is constantly in flux. Big tech wants to control what you say, and politicians are discussing taking away constitutional rights. I don’t want to get into a political rant, but I think you might have less freedom than you think.
We all think we have more freedom than the person in the next country because we’re conditioned to believe that we’re the freest country in the world. Look at North Korea, where people are forced to work at gunpoint and forced to eat what the government rations you. Look at socialist countries where citizens are forced to accept what the government gives them – from healthcare to jobs to housing.
You may think you have more freedom in the United States but think about this. While slaving away at work during the day, whether in a cubicle or out in a field, are you any more free than someone in North Korea or in a communist or socialist country who’s doing the same thing? Everyone still has to go to work to be able to put food on their tables.
What does true freedom look like? For me, it’s not answering to someone else to be able to feed my family. For me, freedom is being able to do what I want, go where I want, and be with who I want – all on my terms.
Freedom is relative, and in the U.S., we may have certain freedoms, but to attain true freedom – the freedom to do what you want when you want – you have to plan for it. This type of freedom is not a right or a privilege. You have to plan for it, execute the plan, make it your priority and do everything in your power to make it a reality. Just understand that it’s not gonna happen overnight.
Everyone talks about financial freedom, but is anyone achieving it or doing the right things to attain it? We all have the WHY right; it’s the HOW that differentiates the people who have true freedom and those that don’t. The WHY for most of us is financial freedom, but the HOW is where we diverge.
Most people think that the HOW for achieving financial freedom is a get-rich-quick situation or scheme. I recently read that most people who want to start a business just want to sell it. Why? Because they want the financial freedom that comes from a big exit.
Many entrepreneurs who launch startups have the same dreams, but the reality is 9 out of 10 will fail.
Just sounds like buying and selling stock to me. Everyone thinks that the path to wealth is buying something and selling it quickly to someone else for more money is the path to wealth. The problem is that most of the time, someone isn’t willing to pay a higher price. But that won’t stop people from trying.
Everyone wants to retire early and be free from the grind, but most people think that the only way to do that is to get rich quickly. From people looking to win the Powerball to investors chasing the next shiny new investment, most people think wealth and financial freedom will fall out of the sky.
Getting rich quickly, at least in the United States, is conditioned. After all, that’s what you see on the internet and social media. This person released a hit song. That person won the lottery. That person got famous on TikTok. In reality, those who have achieved true freedom didn’t do it overnight, and it certainly didn’t fall out of the sky.
So, how do you achieve true financial freedom?
Let’s consult the ultra-high-net-worth individuals who have already achieved it and see what we can learn from them:
Decide.
The first step to financial freedom is to make the determination to achieve it.
Study.
Study the financial habits and asset allocations of the ultra-wealthy. How do they handle their money, and what do they invest in?
Save To Invest.
If you study the habits of the ultra-wealthy, you’ll notice that in the early days of their investing careers, they minimized expenses and debt in order to save to invest. They wanted to put their money to work for them instead of the other way around.
Get Out Of Your Comfort Zone And Invest In Alternatives.
The wealthy are comfortable with being uncomfortable. To achieve true freedom, you have to take chances and get out of your comfort zone. Ignore what everyone else is doing. It’s not working. To reap the big rewards, you have to take the risk to do something different.
The wealthy understand that failure is always possible, but they’ll take that risk if staring down an abyss is the price of success.
So what did the ultra-wealthy take their investment chances on to break away from the more traditional mindsets? They looked to alternatives.
The ultra-wealthy allocate more than 50% of their assets to two particular alternative asset segments:
- Investments in income-producing private companies (i.e., private equity); and
- Cash-flowing commercial real estate.
Seek Out Multiple Streams Of Passive Income.
If you want to break free of your job, you’ll need to find sources of income that can be made in your sleep. Private equity and private real estate (real estate investing through investments in private companies) are ideal for generating passive income.
Passive income is essential to wealth building because cash flow from one investment can be used to invest in other opportunities to create additional passive income streams. Wash, rinse, repeat. That’s how wealth is grown exponentially, and freedom is attained.
Just like national freedom that must be fought and sacrificed for, personal freedom also requires you to work for it. It won’t be achieved overnight, but by focusing on alternative assets that can generate passive income to multiply wealth, you’ll be able to achieve the type of true freedom that everyone else covets but doesn’t know how to achieve.
But you have to decide to work for it, plan for it, and execute it using the blueprint that ultra-wealthy investors have provided you. You just have to get out of your comfort zone and go for it.