Steps to Financial Freedom

Steps to Financial Freedom

General

1. Financial freedom where your dreams actually can come true. If you want to get there, following steps will show you as to how you can gain financial freedom:

Md. Lutful Huda

Set Life Vision

2. Financial goals don’t just happen. You make them happen. This step requires you to assess where you want to be 5, 10 and 20 years from now and answer some big questions, such as where you want to live in retirement and when you want to stop working. Your job is to structure your finances so you can achieve your vision. Find out your vision, goals, values, and what kind of lifestyle you want. That’s key to a good start.

Get Financial Education

3. The more you’re financially educated, the better you’ll be able to manage your finances. So, don’t waste time on useless things. Get some financial education and bring your finances out of this mess. 

Find Financial Faults

4. Discover why your finances are suffering. Note down your financial practices like frequency of your shopping, the way you pay your bills, the amount you spend each month, and so on. 

Figure Out Present Standing 

5. Firstly figure out where you are now. In this step you’ll create a net worth statement, which is essentially an honest measure of your current wealth. Subtract your liabilities from your assets, you get your net worth. Your net worth statement is an important tool that charts your financial progress over the years.

Carve Away Expenses

6. After examining your financial flaws and present standing, check out as to how you can fix the mistakes and change your financial health for better.

Develop Strategy

7. Once you know where you’re going, you need a plan to get there. The usual route is to spend less than you earn and invest the surplus in such a way that you can get where you want to go.

Do Plan A Budget

8. Try to plan a budget. Budgeting is the most essential and effective tool to manage your finances. Check out some importance of budgeting below because to:

Keep track of your income

Control over your finances

Help you prepare for your gray hair and rainy days

Identifies wasteful expenses

Makes you save money

Alert you about your future financial problems

Create Investment Policy

9. Every professional financial plan includes an Investment Policy Statement (IPS) that recommends how a portfolio should be invested. It puts in writing the rules that will make you a more disciplined investor. Having an IPS helps you to stick with your plan and keeps you from changing course when the market gets volatile.

Prepare A Will

10. An intelligent personality and every adult who owns assets and has a spouse or children should have a will. An accurate and up-to-date will is the only way to ensure your assets will be distributed the way you want them to be. Otherwise you are going to put your family in problem after you depart from this world. 

Prepare Final Plan

11. A typical financial plan has five main parts as follows:

a. The first outlines where you stand right now, that’s your current situation. 

b. The second contains your top financial goals, or where you want to go. 

c. The third is a simple net worth statement.

d. The fourth lists the steps you must take to achieve your goals. It includes your income and expenses, an overview of your insurance if you have, a section on retirement planning, and a section on estate planning. 

e. Finally, the fifth section—usually a separate document—is your Investment Policy Statement, which lays out how your portfolio is to be invested.

Conclusion

12. Financial freedom only needs your patience and a bit of sacrifice. If you have patience, confidence, believe in yourself, and sacrifice a bit, then financial freedom is not far.

Note:
Prepared by Major (R) Md. Lutful Huda, presently Chairman of TIDAC and Dreamwork Limited, Chief Editor of 'Crime and Judgement' Magazine