Freedombyfi

If you’ve ever thought: “I’m young, I’ll figure out my finances later” then keep reading👇

According to Debt.com, here was the average amount of debt by generation in 2020:

Gen Z: $16,043
Millennials: $87,448
Gen X: $140,643
Baby boomers: $97,290
Silent generation: $41,281

So, what does this tell us?

That debt isn’t going to magically go away and you won’t just get better with your finances as you age - especially since you’ll likely take on more responsibilities and financial obligations.

Two important things to understand:
1️⃣ Your current situation is a result of past behavior. Whether by choice or circumstance, if you’re stuck in loads of debt or have a bad financial situation, then you’re there because of what already happened. You CANNOT change the past!
2️⃣Your future situation is a result of present behavior. It doesn’t matter where you are or how you got there. If you take positive action in the present, then you’ll reap the benefits in the future. You CAN change the future!

You make choices every single day that impact your financial future.

Here’s something to seriously consider: What are you going to do about it?

😫Are you going to stick to the status quo, ignore the importance of financial literacy, and hope that someone or something comes to save you?... (Nobody’s coming to save you BTW)

OR

😎Are you going to assume the responsibility to control your own destiny and kick your financial butt into gear, so you can achieve financial freedom?

It’s totally up to you, but if you don’t want to live in a shadow of debt or be limited by financial constraints your entire life, and you prefer to make changes that will drive you to financial independence, then you’re in the right place.

We’re here to help you become the external force that sets your finances in motion, so you can achieve financial independence and live life on your own terms!

Start now by following ✅

📢 There’s more to life than money! So why should you care about it?👇

While it’s true that money isn’t everything, this doesn’t change the fact that it has an impact on almost everything.

Think about where you live, what you eat, what you do, what you buy, what you drive, when you work, how long you work, why you work...

What do these things all have in common? They’re all affected by money in some way.

Money is a big influence in every decision we make. Instead of learning how to utilize money so that we’re in control of our lives, most of us let money dictate how we spend our lives.

What if we told you it doesn’t have to be this way?

That’s where Financial Independence comes in, which is when you have enough money to live a life of comfort without having to work for income. The best part is - it’s not about the money. It’s about freedom.

Why does reaching financial freedom matter to you? Because you want more options and less constraint in life, and money shouldn’t be the single driving force behind every decision you make.

Reaching financial independence simply means you have more options and peace of mind. You have the ability to decide how you spend your time, and more importantly, you’ve
put yourself in a position to handle life’s ups and downs with ease. No more financial hardships or money stress.

➡️ If you want to learn how to achieve financial independence, make sure to follow

60 year old you is doing a happy dance rn all because you did this👇:

You invested!🎉

Here’s how to get started:
✅ Open a brokerage account. You can do this online pretty quickly and easily - two popular brokerages are Vanguard and Fidelity.
✅ Transfer funds to your account. We set up automatic monthly payments so that we’re hitting our investment goals and paying ourselves first.
✅ Invest the funds that you transferred into your account. We personally invest in low-cost index funds or ETFs that track the total stock market or the S&P500.
✅ Start ASAP. Time is your best friend! The more time you have your money invested, the more it can grow due to compound interest. As you can see in the chart above, the younger you start, the less money you’ll have to invest each month to reach the same goals as if you were to start later in life.

If you feel like you can’t afford to put away the amount of money that corresponds with your age based on the above chart, that’s okay! Everyone’s situation is different and we all need to start somewhere. Start small if you can, and focus on increasing your monthly contribution amount little by little.

We understand that not everyone has the funds to invest each month. If that’s you, here’s what you can focus on instead:
✨ Increasing your income. Ask for a raise at your current job, seek out a higher paying job if possible, or work on side hustles in your downtime. We know working in your downtime isn’t ideal, but think of it as a temporary solution.
✨ Decreasing your expenses. This step takes a lot of self-discipline, introspection, and honesty. Does your spending reflect your values? Do you spend on things that make you truly happy? Are you overspending on things that don’t? Asking these questions, reducing unnecessary spending, and sticking to a budget will help you course correct and live below your means.
☑️ Once you’ve completed these two steps, you should be able to free up some money to start investing!

↗️ Share this with a friend to help make them a millionaire📩

💥Please note: This is not financial advice - just financial education.

🔔 Reminder: Most millionaires budget✨

OKAY, we get it. Budgeting isn’t riveting. Or sexy. Or fun.

BUT, being financially free is. Right?!

💸 We learned that most millionaires create and live by a household budget when we read the Millionaire Next Door. The author points out the fact that most participants in their study budgeted and controlled their expenses to reach millionaire status, and they maintain their affluent status the same exact way.

Making a budget is like making a plan for your money. Instead of wondering where all your money is going, a budget will tell your money where to go!

✨ Once you gain control over your money, budgeting actually becomes a lot more fun. Through budgeting, you’re able to course-correct any poor spending habits and put money toward your saving and investing goals, while also making room for activities or items that make you HAPPY (minus the guilt)!😆

Instead of feeling defeated every month or wondering why you seemingly always have NO MONEY, create a budget and get yourself on track to building wealth and becoming free!

💥Want to know more about our favorite budgeting strategy and best practices? Head to the link in our bio to download our FREE Ebook and Budget Tracker tool ➡️

The secret to increasing productivity👇

👋 Let go of things that are out of your control.
✅ Focus on the few things that you can control!

Focusing on things that are out of your control only stunts your productivity. Fixating on something that happened in the past or stressing over things that might happen in the future can be overwhelming and will prevent you from making further progress.

When you succumb to self-doubt, limiting beliefs, or a negative mindset, you’re devoting energy to the wrong things that aren’t conducive to your productivity and overall growth.

Two things that you do have complete control over are your thoughts and actions.

Having the ability to control these two things will increase the likelihood of reaching your goals - whether they’re personal, professional, or financial goals.

The best way to optimize productivity is to:
1️⃣ Focus your energy on having positive thoughts
2️⃣ Determine what actions you can take in the PRESENT to work toward the best possible outcome

Want to work on improving your productivity to reach your goals faster? ✅ Follow for more mindset tips & tricks!

Repeat after me: Transferring money to my investment account is not investing❌

Are you confused? Let us clarify!👇

Putting money into your account doesn’t mean that you’ve invested it, it’s only the first step to investing!

Step 2️⃣ is to actually buy investments with the funds that you’ve put into your account. This is crucial if you want your money to grow.

We recently found out about a family member who put away $1,000 into an IRA 35 years ago. They made the common mistake of putting money into the account, but not investing it into any funds. At this point, the retirement account was essentially acting as a savings account. Since the money wasn’t invested, it was simply sitting there collecting 0% interest.

Today, there’s still $1,000 sitting in their IRA, and not a penny more 😶

Had this family member used these funds to purchase specific investments within the investment account, such as an S&P 500 index fund, their money would have grown exponentially due to compound interest.

📈 Based on a return of 10.82% (which was the return rate of the S&P 500 over the last 35 years), that $1,000 would have turned into $36,445... without investing another cent!

Now imagine if they kept investing an additional $1,000 each year. They’d now have a balance of over $360,000!🚀

This is all due to the magic of compound interest, which is when the interest you earn on the balance of an investment is reinvested, earning you more interest.

⏱ As you can see from these examples, time is compound interest’s best friend. The more time your investments have to grow, the bigger the return.

This is why it’s so important to make sure that you’re investing early and often, and that you’re actually completing step 2️⃣ of the process by iinvesting the money that you contribute to your investment accounts (instead of letting it sit there over time).

This is your reminder to check on your investment accounts and make sure your money is being put to work!

📩 Share this post with a friend to make sure their money is working for them, too!

Want to retire early? Avoid this👇

Lifestyle inflation (aka lifestyle creep) is the positive correlation of income and expenses. When your income increases, your expenses do too.

For example, let’s say you’ve been promoted from Associate to Manager. Your immediate (potentially subconscious) thought might be to upgrade your lifestyle. You notice that all the managers at your office drive newer cars or wear nicer clothes than you do. You’re already online shopping and brainstorming what color BMW you want to get before your increased paycheck hits your bank account. This is a prime example of lifestyle creep.

Avoid the creep at all costs!

Lifestyle creep hinders your ability to build wealth. If you spend as much as you make, then you’ll have little to no money leftover to save and invest.

Upgrading your lifestyle every time your income increases will inevitably delay your retirement date. Furthermore, you’ll end up clocking more hours in at work trying to keep up with paying for your lifestyle. Lifestyle creep is a vicious cycle.

To combat lifestyle inflation, try the “Wedge” strategy (from Mike Michalowicz’s book Profit First):
✅ With every increase in pay, this strategy allows you to upgrade your lifestyle, but not to the full extent of the increase.
✅ Instead of using the full pay bump to inflate your lifestyle (inevitably finding your way back to the paycheck to paycheck life), you should immediately take half the amount of the increase and put it into savings, debt-payoff, or investments.
✅ The other half can be used as you wish.
✅ For example: If you take home $80K and you get a $6K pay increase, then $3K should be reserved for savings. The other $3K is for you, so you’ll now be living on $83K! Win-win for current and future you!

What are some strategies you use to avoid lifestyle inflation? Comment below!👇🏽

Think more money is the answer to your problems? Think again.. 👇

Ever heard of Mike Tyson? You know, the guy with the pet tiger and the face-tattoo from The Hangover? Oh, he was also one of the greatest professional boxers of all time.. That ring any bells (pun intended)?

Mike had a remarkable boxing career to say the least. During the peak of his career, he had a net worth of over $300 million. Despite earning millions, he still managed to find his way to financial ruin and declared bankruptcy in 2003. Tyson claimed that he was unable to pay his bills due to the large amount of debt he accumulated.

The story of Mike Tyson and 70% of lottery winners is a tale as old as time: they both lost huge sums of money due to a lack of financial literacy.

Remember, it’s not about what you MAKE, it’s about what you KEEP! Making money is one thing, but the money you make means nothing if you don’t know how to keep it.

The person who makes $50,000 and spends $30,000 is better off than the person who makes $100,000 but spends $95,000.

Poor money management will only lead to stress, financial hardship, and more time spent working. It’s important to be conscious of your money habits and increase your financial literacy ASAP so you can work on putting your future self in the best position possible.

When it comes to personal finance, time is your greatest asset and resource. This is your sign to get started!

Here’s exactly what we’ve done to get our finances together:
🔮Think about the future. Where do you want to be? Who do you want to become? Make step-by-step plans to guide you toward these visions.
🧠 Self-educate. Personal finance books, podcasts, and educational social media accounts are great places to start.
💵 Create a realistic budget. It doesn’t have to be complex. All that matters is having a plan for how your income is used and sticking to it.
🚀 Take action consistently! The knowledge you gain is useless on the sidelines. Growth only happens when you take action and step outside your comfort zone!

💬 How are you increasing your financial literacy?👇

Follow and for more finance tips and content!

How much money would you want to earn by doing nothing?👇

Option A) $530
Option B) $4,768
Option C) $677,561

I think we all know which option we’d choose!

We’re not saying it’s impossible to amass a great amount of money in a savings account. With a traditional savings account, the $25,000 deposit and no additional contributions would only take 5,561 years to reach a return of $702,561. Don’t have that kind of time? The other option would be to contribute an additional ~$19,000 every year during that 35 year period. But with all of life’s other expenses it’s probably difficult to come up with that kind of cash every year..

So maybe the savings account isn’t the best way to build wealth 🤔

By investing the initial deposit of $25,000 (instead of saving) and not adding a penny more in contributions, after 35 years your money will grow to $702,561 (assuming a 10% return). Not too shabby, huh?

🕑 When you invest, your money will work for you around the clock so that one day you don’t have to exchange your time for money. Every time you invest, you’re buying more freedom for your future self. Once you have enough investments to cover your living expenses, work can be optional and you’ll have the freedom to spend your time doing what you actually want.

🌟 It’s important to recognize that savings accounts are still necessary to have, but they are not the best method to use when trying to grow your money. Savings accounts are for holding your money so that it’s readily available for short-term use and investing is for growing your money over the long-term.

Here’s what a savings account should be used for:
✅ Emergency fund of 3-6 months of living expenses
✅ Savings goals or sinking funds for planned upcoming expenses (paying off debt, down payment on a home, vacation, wedding, holiday shopping, etc.)

Any excess funds you have should be put to work by investing. Investing is how you GROW your money and build wealth for your future self!

💬 What’s your favorite way to invest for your future?👇

If you’re thinking “how the HELL am I going to find an extra 2 hours in my day?!” then keep reading👇🏼

On average, Americans spend just over 3 hours each day watching TV and another 3.5 hours each day on social media. That totals to about 6.5 hours each day and accounts for just over 40% of time in the day that you would spend awake (assuming you get 8 hours of sleep each night).

Basically, 40% of the average American’s waking hours are spent watching TV and on social media. Is that alarming to you?

Doing average things translates to achieving average results. If average is what you’re going for, then to each their own. However, if you want more out of life - let’s say time freedom, location freedom, or being work-optional - then you’re going to need to do more!

Personally, we don’t strive for average. The average American retires at 62. A study by Fidelity also shows that the average 60-69 year old in America has $229,000 saved for retirement. Not sure about you, but we DO NOT want to settle for that. That’s why we form habits, complete tasks, and set goals for ourselves that are uncommon among the typical American.

Here’s how to free up your time to achieve your goals so that you can be above average:
Step 1️⃣: Identify habits that are taking away from your productivity
Step 2️⃣: Replace these habits with ones that are more conducive to your goals
Step 3️⃣: Write out a schedule and block out specific times for self-improving activities

Two hours per day may seem impossible, but after you review how you spend your time on a typical day, you’re bound to identify areas for improvement. For example, if you watch 2-3 episodes of Nextflix each night, cut back and only watch one. Use that time saved to read a book, research a potential investment or business opportunity, or build your skillset.

“If you make daily progress and continually improve, you will lead a happier, healthier, more productive, and wealthier life.” -Set for Life

Stop wasting time settling for ordinary. Start taking action and see for yourself how extraordinary your results can be!

📩 DM us the word “mindset” for 25% off of our Rich Mentality, Rich Reality ebook📚

It wasn’t a Lamborghini, if that’s what you’re thinking😂

It was a 2017 Subaru Legacy and my first big purchase after college. I bought it gently used, but with the heated leather seats, sunroof, top-of-the line sound system, the big engine, and less than 7,000 miles, it sure felt brand new.

You’re probably thinking, “There’s no way that you paid $600k for a used Subaru Legacy!”

You’re right, I got it for less than $30k. What I failed to acknowledge at the time, however, was the financial impact of this decision. Fast forward 2.5 years and I finally came to my senses and realized it was time to sell the car because to me, cars are money pits, not status symbols.

I recently decided to calculate the opportunity cost of my decision. Opportunity cost is a way of looking at the loss of potential gain from choosing one option, instead of going with another.

Here’s a breakdown of the math:
🌟The $2000 down payment combined with the $423/month payments for 2.5 years totals to $14,690.
🌟I was 23 when I bought the car, so I figured I’d look at what 40 years of investing could have produced for a traditional retirement age.
🌟By investing the $2000 down payment and contributing $423 every month for 2.5 years, a 10% return (long-term market average) would have resulted in just over $16,810.
🌟Keeping that sum invested for the next 37.5 years at the same return - without investing ANOTHER PENNY - would put me at just under $600,000!

Want to know the real kicker? My parents had given me their old, paid-off car that I drove during college. I didn’t even NEED to buy this new Subaru, but I thought that was the natural first step of someone who just graduated college and landed their first real job.

I’ve learned my lesson since then and now I calculate the opportunity cost BEFORE making larger purchases. I always weigh the pros and cons of a purchase and make sure that it aligns with my values.

I’ve learned how to spend with intention and urge you to do the same so that you don’t make the same mistake that I did!

-Tommy

👉🏼 Follow for more wealth building tips

How to effectively reduce your expenses👇🏼

Did you know that housing and transportation are the two largest expenses for the average American, accounting for 33% and 17% of consumer spending, respectively? This means that combined, housing and transportation make up 50% of the average American’s consumer spending!🏠🚘

When trying to reduce your monthly expenses, you might immediately cut back on smaller expenses, like your daily Starbucks latte or weekly happy hour outing with co-workers.

These small, variable expenses are typically the ones that we think we have the most control over and can be reduced through sacrifice and self-discipline. The fixed expenses - like rent or monthly car payments - are often deemed as unchangeable.

Let’s take a look at some of Izzy’s spending habits:
🚙 Car Payment: $500/month
☕️ Starbucks: $60/month ($5 coffee 3x per week)

If Izzy were to cut out her trips to Starbucks entirely, she would save about $780 annually. On the other hand, if she were to trade in her brand new car for an older model with a $200/month payment, she’d save $3,600 annually.

By trading in her car for a less expensive one, Izzy saves $2,820 more per year than if she were to cut out Starbucks. What a huge difference! Izzy’s thrilled with this decision because her grande iced lattes can remain in her budget and her car is still able to get her from Point A to B.

While cutting back on smaller costs can help reduce your expenses, the magic really happens when you focus on reducing the larger expenses. If you minimize or eliminate these bigger expenses altogether, you’re able to achieve your financial goals much faster without having to sacrifice the little things in your budget that bring you joy.

Here are some ideas to help reduce your larger expenses:
✅ Buy a used, older car in cash to avoid monthly payments
✅ Trade in your car for a less expensive one to reduce monthly payments
✅ Sell your car and start biking/walking everywhere
✅ Find roommates to reduce your rent
✅ Buy a single family or multifamily home and rent out spare rooms/units (also known as house hacking)

💬 How are you planning to reduce your larger expenses?👇🏼