MINDSET
MONEY TALK
The 7 Steps to Financial Freedom
THE JOURNEY—ZERO THE GAP & ENJOY!
STEP SEVEN
by Gene Powers
n Step 6 you began the jour - ney of building passive income
plan and goals, measure the gap, and make necessary adjustments as you make the journey. I recommend measuring progress at least quarter- ly. Sometimes major course correc - tions are advisable. When we were building our invest - ment company, we reviewed income/ expense and profit/loss monthly. It was like building a carefully crafted stone wall. After learning enough of the expertise needed to begin our own wall while buying this invest - ment for other experts, progress was painfully slow. We hand-picked each stone, carefully examining its size, shape, color, and quality and then laid it into place very carefully to ensure that each stone was solidly in place. Our motto in this journey was to “NEVER LOSE CAPITAL.” As we started out with limited capital and could not afford a major setback due to starting late in life, we invested conservatively. Each stone was one loan investment acquired that gen - erated an amount of passive income. Gradually we moved faster, more confident of our experience and abil - ity to choose and fit each good stone (loan asset) solidly into the wall. Last month, I wrote about break - ing our BIG goal down into mile - stones and the four milestones we defined for our journey. It was not
too far along into the journey that we realized that the major milestones were far apart, and fatigue occasion - ally set in. It is easy to set off on this journey with excitement and enthusiasm. As time passes, when the goal is BIG and seems far away, it is easy to get discouraged and to lose resolve. How will you push through this? Be assured that this experience is part of the journey. The strength of your WHY? becomes essential. It helps carry you forward even when things are tough. Much like running a mar - athon, it is necessary to keep your eye on the finish line, know where you are in the race, and find your pace to avoid excessive fatigue. We learned to pause and enjoy and celebrate every step towards our goal. For us, it was as simple as going for an ice cream reward when we closed a transaction for another investor adding active revenue to our company, and an even bigger cele - bration of a nice dinner out every time we added an asset to our own passive income portfolio. We love to travel; in fact, our mantra for realizing our financial freedom is “Never work again, travel forever!” So, when we reached a major milestone, we would have a larger celebration and give ourselves a luxury trip as our reward.
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with your chosen investment vehicle —you developed necessary exper - tise to make these investments, and you started your journey and regularly measuring your passive income growth. Remember that a MINIMUM of 10 percent of your income from all sources must go back into your financial freedom fund for passive income investments with your vehi - cle. That also includes 10 percent of your growing monthly passive income amount as you make the journey— the result is that the growth of your passive income and your progress towards the goal of financial freedom slowly begins to accelerate as you are farther along in your journey. During the last part of your journey, the progress becomes truly impressive through the pow - er of compounding in your grow - ing financial freedom fund PLUS a GROWING total income stream. Step 7 is making the journey. It is about building your expertise, build - ing your portfolio one asset at a time for your chosen investment vehicle, and accelerating as you progress towards your passive income goal. It is essential to regularly measure and compare where you are to your
80 | think realty magazine :: february 2021
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