7 Tips To Achieve Financial Freedom

The concept of time and money had changed throughout history. The term Financial Freedom has gained much popularity in the ever changing financial scenario today. More and more people are on the lookout for home based business ideas and opportunities. If you'll browse the internet, there are tons of programs online which offer top home business ideas and home business reviews.

TIME IS MONEY

All of us have one thing in common - TIME. A well-known celebrity, a famous author or an ordinary person all have 24 hours to spend in a day.

More often than not, we exchange our time for money. Day in and day out, we spend 12 hours or more at work in order for us to earn wages. We work extra hard but still not able to achieve the financial freedom we strive for.

Financial freedom enables a person to have time freedom - enjoying life without hampering his steady income in any manner. This is based on managing assets and investments that are compounded over time to generate steady flow of cash.

Start your journey to Financial Freedom

Financial freedom can be achieved. We just need to continuously learn new ways which will guide us towards our journey. We must make a plan and work hard to accomplish that plan. Here are 7 tips which can help you on your journey to financial freedom:

1.) You are who you think you are...

How you see yourself determines how successful you will become. The journey to financial freedom starts when we embrace "Change". We must re-calibrate the way we think. We were told that in order for us to earn money, we must work hard.

Once upon a time, there was a donkey which fell in a deep pit. He tried so hard to climb out of the hole but to no avail. Then finally, he stopped realizing that his efforts are not doing him any good. The donkey kept telling himself "there is a better way... there is a better way".

The owner, thinking that there is no hope for the donkey, decided to bury him to die in the deep pit. He started throwing dirt into the pit. The donkey felt the dirt thrown on his back. Immediately, he closed his eyes, shook the dirt off, and stepped back. He went on with this until the hole was filled with dirt, and he was able to step out towards his freedom.

Just like the donkey, we must start looking at ALL things positively. The dirt symbolizes the negative things happening in our lives. We call them trials. Our success is determined by how we look at those trials and how well we react to them. We must always have a positive mindset, whether in our families or towards earning money. A healthy perception of money is necessary in order to maintain an over-all balance.

Focus on making money work for you instead of you working for money. Remember that you earn money in order to achieve your ends.

In the end, achieving financial freedom means developing a process of self liberation.

2.) Your Health is Your Greatest Wealth...

We've all heard the phrase - Health is Wealth. Your health is your greatest wealth. Do you think you will have REAL FREEDOM if you're financially free but you're too sick to enjoy it? We want to be financially free so that we can have more time to do the most important things in life - Family, Community, etc.

You should look at your health as your greatest asset. Follow these 3 tips for a healthier you...

• Do have periodic check-ups with your physician. Do not self-medicate. It is best to get opinion from experts when it comes to your health.

• Do regular exercises. Work to achieve your desired heart rate per day. You'll discover that physical activities condition your body and you'll can delivery both physically and mentally to complete the task at hand.

• Watch your diet. You are what you eat. A good diet can boost both your mental and physical being to be able to achieve what you want in life.

3.) Know What You Want...

Will you leave home without knowing where you are going? Similarly, you will not be able to start your journey towards financial freedom if you don't know what you really want.

This is the most important activity that you need to do if you want to reach your goals. Your vision is the most important factor of your success. You should define what you want to achieve at the beginning of your journey to financial freedom. What do you want to achieve? Why do you want to achieve these? You have to answer these questions as you are developing your vision.

When you have done the above mentioned, follow these simple steps:

• Write down your vision or dreams. Put in the details that you want.

• Read and imagine this vision every day. It is vital to "feel" these visions coming true in your mind. This way, you'll start believing and you'll start achieving. What your mind can conceive, and your heart believes, your body can achieve.

• This will strengthen your will to achieve. There may be obstacles along the way but you'll be very focused that you'll find a way around those obstacles.

4.) Earn As Much As You Can...

The best way to fail in your journey is to have only one income stream. It is like being dependent on one water source for all you needs. What happens if the river runs dry? The whole community will thirst.

All of us should strive to have multiple streams of income. The number of income streams that we have will determine how fast we can achieve our financial goals.

Do a research on how to build multiple income streams. It is best to look for ways to build multiple streams of passive income. The internet offers a variety of top home business ideas and opportunities. Although we've heard that the net is full of scammers, there are still legitimate home business opportunities available. You must do extensive research for top home business ideas. You can Google the terms "work from home on the internet" or "How to start an internet business."

5.) Save As Much As You Can...

Always strive to save a part of your earnings before you make any spending. This way, you are paying yourself first by paying your savings account first. There are various vehicles where we can put the money, savings account, time deposits, mutual funds, investing directly on the stock market or investing in your own business.

The most ideal is to save 20% of your earning and put it in various investment vehicles. This way, you are assured that your money will grow and earn for you passive income. Always research where to your money will earn faster. Be wary though, there are still scammers out there waiting to take hold of your hard-earned cash.

As the saying goes - "Save in the spring so you won't beg in the fall".

6.) Simplify Your Life As Much As You Can...

When you have money, you can afford to buy so many things. In fact, you'll be tempted to buy things that are not that important in your life.

BEWARE!!!

There are more important things in life than material things. Simplifying your life means you'll get detached from material possessions. This will enable us to focus more on our relationships rather than special gadgets and expensive toy.

Differentiate between your wants and your needs. If you don't need it, don't buy it.

Simple living creates a space in our hearts which enables us to enjoy even the very little things in life. Material possessions will only complicate things.

We will learn to love and serve the "Real People" around us instead of the "Reel people" we see in our flat screen TV. We will enjoy nature's music more than the song we'll hear in our audio surround system.

Real financial freedom lies in the relationship we have with other people. It is having the time to serve and love more people more and more each day.

7.) Love More...

True wealth is found in relationships. We know that all of us have limited amount of time here in this world. One day, that time will end. And on our deathbed, what will matter most is our relationship with the people around us. We don't look for our Ferrari, or our Home theater system or the cash we have in the bank. Instead, we want our love ones - family, relatives, and friends - to spend their time with us.

How often do we hear the words "If only I had spent more time with him," or "If only I hug him one more time", during wakes and funerals? At the end of our journey here, still what matters most is the time we've spent with our loved ones.

Friend, don't wait till it's over. Do it now. Love more each day.

The journey to financial freedom requires commitment and determination. Rest assured, there will be difficulties along the way. The challenges are there to mold our characters, not to keep us down. Always focus on our goal no matter what lies ahead.

Go on my friend. Start your journey to financial freedom. Keep focused. And when you reach your goal, you will look back and tell yourself - well done.

To God Be The Glory...

Neo Rayos

Neo Rayos is a Home Based Business Expert whose 21 years of Sales & Marketing experience has allowed him to work wherever he wants, whenever he want. He has recently transitioned to the GPT / Direct Business Model

To explore partnering with Neo Rayos in a business that is changing lives in one of the most difficult economic times in history, visit his website at http://neorayos.com

How to Achieve Financial Freedom with Your Home

The secret disclosed on how you too could achieve financial freedom through property (and tell the pension companies just where to stick their measly, worthless ‘pensions’) Geoff Morris is a self-made property millionaire who made it in less than 18 months even with a hectic 'day job'. He has written a series of articles to help people like you achieve the same levels of success – as long as you are willing to ‘Go For It!’

Many people these days are getting more and more concerned as they approach retirement age. Even those in their late twenties are beginning to become concerned about the effects of old age. What has brought on such a dilemma in those so young? It is the plight of the pensions in this country that is causing this concern?

Probably.

But there is a solution to all this that could not only remove this fear, but also dramatically improve the lifestyle of all concerned.

What is this solution?

Most people are brought up to believe that their main goal in life is to own their own house, and have fully paid for it by the time they retire.

Why?

What is the point in just scrimping and scraping throughout your working life only to have to sell your house and move down market, or worse still, sell up and rent, while you just try and make ends meet on a pitifully small handout from the State?

As soon as you have bought your first house, you should be thinking about buying your second and your third, and your fourth…..

“What on earth for” , will be the retort of most of you, “ we can only just afford the repayments on the first one, let alone buy any more”

Let’s look at the way most people buy a house, and then lets look at some alternative methods.

The usual way of acquiring a house is to put down a large deposit – somewhere in the region of 10 – 15%, which on an average £200,000 house will equate to around £30,000.

The next route is to take out a repayment mortgage over a fixed term, say 15 to 25 years, where you will be paying a combination of interest on the outstanding loan, as well as repaying the capital.

On top of this, most people will take out some other financial facility, such as an endowment policy coupled with a life insurance policy for the period of the mortgage, so at the end of the mortgage term, they will not only own the house outright, but also have a lump sum. Not a very large lump sum, as a lot of the insurance premiums would have gone towards the life cover purchased.

Now, we have all seen how endowments have failed terribly of late due to overoptimistic performance, so there is no guarantee that the above route wil produce anything other than a tremendous financial drain on this person for a very large period of their lives, and with no real plan for their future except ownership of a house, a small endowment, and probably a ridiculously low pension to keep them going in their retirement years.

However, there is another way. Interested? Then read on….

Let’s look at a totally different scenario, where the couple looking to buy their first house took specialist advice from one of the more reputable property clubs that are around. These clubs are admittedly usually aimed at property investors, but isn’t that what we all should be?

Now, let’s take our example of the £200,000 dream house for our hopeful house buyers. They see a development of dream houses by one of the nationally recognised house builders. Do you think they could persuade the developers to pay the 15% deposit for them? On their own – not a chance, but if our hopefuls go via one of these property clubs, the chances are that the developer would now be willing to pay the 15% as a ‘gift’.

I can see your expression now. “Not a chance” you say. But it does happen, and we can arrange introductions to make this possible.

So, you now have bought your house, and instead of having to find £30,000 deposit, al you have to do is get your self a mortgage.

Now, when you move into a house, especially in your early years, the chance of you staying there for the term of the mortgage is very unlikely. You may change jobs; you may want to move to a different area, or there may be many other reason why you will want to move within a few years. So, the house you have bought is only a temporary residence, and you could almost treat it as a rental property – but with one big big difference.

Whether you paid the deposit, or whether you got this ‘gifted’ deposit from the developers, this money, this equity in the property is YOURS. And not only that, it is a historical fact that house prices, given time, will always increase.

So as this is a ‘temporary’ abode, why go for a mortgage that includes a repayment element in it? Why not go for what is known as an interest only mortgage? What this is then is a loan where you never pay back any of the principle of the loan, but only the interest on it. You will have to pay back the capital at the end of the term, but we will be showing you how easy that can be achieved a little bit later.

Your situation now is that you are paying the barest minimum mortgage repayment, but are also sitting on a considerable amount of INCREASIING equity! You do not have to pay for an expensive endowment policy, although a life policy may well give your other half a comfort blanket.

But now look at another effect, which is called ‘Leverage’. With a no-money down deal, the leverage is enormous, but consider the case where you bought a £200,000 house and put a 10% (£20,000) deposit down on it. If the house goes up in value by 10% the equity in your house will have increased by some £20,000. Now, your initial investment was £20,000, so you will have DOUBLED your investment in 12 months. Not bad huh! Try doing that at your local Bank, or even if you dare, the Stock Market!

So, let’s say house prices went up by just 5% per annum over the next 2 years. This would mean an increase in your equity (equity being the difference between the value of your house and the amount of the mortgage on it). This would mean you now owned an extra £10,000 after the first year (5% of £200,000) and £21,000 after the second year (5% of £210,000 + £10,000 from the previous year). This would mean that your house was now worth £221,000, of which you now owned (£221.000 - £170,000) which comes to some £55,100.

Wow! £55 Grand that belongs to you!

Now, let’s do something with this money!

With a good clean credit record after the last 2 years (assuming you had no defaults on your mortgage payments) you could now refinance your house. You could go to your existing lender (if you have a penalty period in your mortgage), or you could go to any other lender and negotiate up to 90% (subject to your financial status) of THE NEW VALUE OF YOUR HOUSE.

90% of £221,000 is £198,900. So you can release nearly £30,000 out of the equity in your house. And the best thing about this money is it is totally tax free! No capital gains to pay and no income tax! If you don’t believe me, speak to an accountant.

Many people have in fact done this, but have then spent the money on new cars, boats, holidays and the like, but once the money is spent in this fashion, it is gone for ever.

But how about if you went and bought another house, this time as an investment property?

You never know, your friendly developer may be persuaded to give you another gifted deposit, in which case you could buy several more houses (your only expense being legal fees, broker’s fees, and stamp duty, which on a £200,000 property would come to around £5,000). In this case, with your £30,000 you could buy another 6 houses!

But how do you go about buying all of these houses? And how, if they all have £170,000 mortgages on them are you ever going to meet the repayments. Assuming an interest rate of 5%, that would be about £700 per property per month! £4,200 per month mortgage! Heaven forbid. How would you sleep at night with that level of debt to your name?

Some years ago this would have been impossible as there was no real financial system that would enable an individual to do this. However, now, you can get what is known as a ‘Buy To Let’ mortgage, where lenders will usually lend up to 85% of the property in question, as long as the anticipated rental income will cover the repayments , plus a bit. The ‘plus a bit’ tends to vary from lender to lender, but you can very quickly get an answer from lenders on whether they will meet the loan. Also, if you are going to get a ‘gifted deposit’, there are only a few lenders who will offer 85% of the list price, so once again, you will need to use a property club or a broker who is used to this situation.

So, you are now the lucky owner of 6 investment properties, as well as your own house.

You also have a commitment to pay 6 investment mortgages as well, and we totalled that as being some £4,200 a month!

But – you don’t want to have to pay that do you? No! You get tenants in, who very kindly pay the mortgage for you (plus a bit for your pocket and 10% or thereabouts for a managing agent to look after the tenants). You can also take out insurances to cover loss of rent, damage, legal fees on disputes, so it is eminently possible for you to become an ‘armchair’ investor landlord.

However, you now own 6 investment houses, not one. You have already seen how equity can build up in your own house. So let’s look at each of your investment properties.

If each property was worth £200,000, and you got a 15% gifted deposit on each one, you are already looking at an equity of some £30,000 in each unit.

If each property increased in value by just 5% per annum, that’s £10,000 from every unit.

Just look what you would be gaining. You would now own a property portfolio of 6 investment properties worth £1.200,000 of which you would have instant equity of around £180,000, and this would be increasing (at just 5%) of some £60,000 every year. Without compounding this increase, if you sold all of your investment properties after 10 years, you would walk away with well over THREE QUARTERS OF A MILLION POUNDS!

So, do you still believe that – whatever the cost – your main objective in life is to pay off your mortgage?

By all means, have this intention – but only after you have made so many other gains that you can really afford this luxury.

This is just one in a series of informative news articles issued by Geoff Morris.

Others include:

• “How to generate an income in excess of £30,000 per annum without leaving your Day Job” • “How to benefit from Off-Plan property purchases and what pitfalls to watch out for” • “How to use a SIPP (Self Investing Pension fund) to grow your portfolio and protect it from the Tax-Man!’’

Other articles can be viewed by just signing up to his property investment page at [http://www.propertyprofits4you.com]

Geoff Morris has built up a multi-million pound property portfolio in less than 18 months. He has written a number of articles aimed to help others follow the same path to financial freedom. Imagine the peace of mind that you would achieve if you follow the advice to be found in his Free reports and consumer guides to be found at [http://www.propertyprofits4you.com]

Only 3 Percent Achieve Their Goals - Would You Like Help With Yours? Here's a New Strategy

Only 3% of people who set goals, they say, achieve them. Did you ever wonder why? I did.

Unless you're part of the 3%, we, the other 97%, have often made New Year's resolutions and, a year later, we may have achieved one of our goals or maybe none at all. It was fun setting them but, soon, job, family and personal life just got in the way. We come to January 1st of the following year, and we started again. Or we decided to take a course in setting and achieving goals. We take the course. It's exciting!

During the course, we were taken through a series of exercises and, by the end, here we were - all of our goals set - SMART goals - specific, measurable, attainable, realistic and timely. Finally, a system and finally we have it all down on paper - financial, health & fitness, family, relationships, business, fun time, contributions, business - phew! What a list! But, hey, we have the system - we've spent the time - this should be it!

Well, the course and the system helped. But... what went wrong? Did every day life get in the way again!

But, nonetheless, every year, we are reminded that SMART goals work. So we try again. And again. And again. We get close and sometimes we get partially there or achieve one or two -

Here's a new strategy to try - it's a system I've designed from a time management perspective. It's a twist and we all know - sometimes that's all it takes - just a twist on an old idea to make it new, real and workable.

This is what is has done for me:

clarity
focus
reduced the stress and pressure
success day after day
concentrated effort
evolution of an idea
progressive achievement

Give it a try - it's free - all you need to do is visit my blog and put your name and email address in the box on the top right-hand side of the page.

Try it - you might like it!

My experience has been garnered within many types of industries. My forte as a consultant is in designing and implementing organization appropriate systems and procedures to effect positive changes in efficiency, effectiveness and productivity. Along with my consulting practice, I offer personal coaching and workshops.

Please visit my blog about time. There are tips and advice on time management, articles and some food for thought. http://www.wizetime.com