The Path To Financial Freedom: Get Your Mind In The Game

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This is the first part in my series on how to get started on the path to being financially free.

In order to start being financially free, you have to start thinking financially free.

· Do you really think you are ready?

· Do you have a problem with living paycheck to paycheck?

· Have you taken any steps to try to control your spending?

You’re probably not going to be successful if you just said no. It’s the truth. This isn’t a financial diet, this is a lifestyle change. You’re life has to change to become financially free. You can’t buy whatever you want. There has to be boundaries to control yourself. If you don’t have boundaries how can you not spend too much money? What’s too much money you ask? It’s an amount that causes you to have to worry about paying your bills of necessity like rent or mortgage…or food.

Well since you’re reading this I’m going to say you’re probably ready to get on the right path. You have to prepare mentally to make it to the finish line. If you continue to think you can spend whatever you want because you earned it, you’re right. You can do whatever you want, but you will always worry about how you’re going to pay the next bill and you will always wonder where your money went.

Self control is hard but you must learn to do it. Learn that you don’t need the newest thing because everyone else has it or because it’s shiny. Don’t be a 2-year-old. Be an adult and be responsible. Yea it’s not the most fun thing in the world but I’m pretty sure our ancestors lived pretty well without anything that we have today, so I know you can do it.

When you get to 60 years of age you will hate yourself for having neglected your future. Sure it’s fun to spend all you want now but your future self won’t think it’s fun when you’re living in a 1 bedroom house with nowhere to go because you’re living on $1000 a month from social security….that’s if you’re lucky enough to still have social security around.

In all actuality becoming financially stable is more for your future than for your present. Are you ever going to want a house? or to take a vacation abroad? How? If you spend all that you have then this is never going to happen. And if it does happen then it will be because you are over extending yourself on credit and it will eventually catch up to you and make you miserable.

You have to create a balance between spending now and saving for your future. Sure you can live in the now but once again there are consequences to every action we do whether good or bad. If you spend everything now to have fun you will have a miserable life in the later years of your life. So start thinking about how you want your future self to live and how you’re going to make that happen.

So the first step is to start thinking about now. What are you willing to sacrifice now to prepare yourself for the future you want? That’s the question you need to ask yourself and you must answer it. Otherwise nothing is going to change and you’re going to have a miserable future….period!

What are you willing to/what have you sacrificed?

Check out the next part in this series The Path To Financial Freedom: Start Counting

photo credit: Cameron Cassan

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