MINDSET
MONEY TALK
The 7 Steps To Financial Freedom
AWARENESS AND DESIRE
STEP ONE
by Gene Powers
A s a real estate investor, you already know that rental real estate and private lending can be excellent sources of monthly (mostly passive) income. However, there is much more to financial freedom than just having retirement savings, investments, and passive income from loans or rental properties. Are you financially free? Here is a simple quiz. No matter how much money you have or earn, even one “NO” answer to questions below means this series of articles has something valuable for you. If you can answer YES to all the questions below, you have achieved financial freedom! • If you take the next MONTH off from working and spend it unplugged on a beach in Tahiti, will everything be the same with your career or business, your investments, your net worth/ financial situation when you return? • If you were to decide to go to Guatemala and help a town build a school or a church for the next YEAR, will all continue normally
worth/financial situation and will it be in equal or better shape when you return? • Would your lifestyle continue as it is now if you decide not to work or, for some reason, could not work for the rest of your life? AWARENESS UNDERSTANDING FINANCIAL FREEDOM If you MUST go to work or MUST show up to run your company or your investment business in order to pay all your bills and to maintain the full lifestyle you desire until you die, then you may be well off, but financial freedom is NOT what you have. You can have millions, and still NOT be financially free. Many people, including financially successful investors, don’t have a clear understanding or good defini - tion of financial freedom. I did not understand or pursue the notion of financial freedom until very late in life. I was very comfortable. My wife and I were already living many of our dreams through solid high-tech careers. However, at age 50+ with some decent savings and investments, I
still saw a sobering crash landing, a drastic change in lifestyle coming by retirement age 65. I realized I was NOT financially free. We could not maintain our desired lifestyle throughout retirement with what savings and investments we had. I began looking for an alternative to this undesirable future by looking at income-generating investments. We researched and considered sev- eral forms of real estate investing, and we bought some rental houses leveraged with mortgages. I discov- ered that financial freedom meant something much more than a few investments and sufficient savings to draw upon through retirement. Financial freedom is having enough on-going PASSIVE income
with your career or business, your investments, your net
92 | think realty magazine :: july 2020
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