Celebrate Your Financial Independence Day
In honor of our nation’s birthday, I’d like to say Happy Fourth of July to all our readers! In the United States, there are certain freedoms we are lucky to have compared to other people in other nations around the world. One of those freedoms is the ability to control our own financial situation through our hard work, brains, and/or perseverance.
Question is: How are you fairing in this very important area of life?
I’ve got a few ideas to help you celebrate your financial independence day (hopefully sooner rather than later and – if you’re there already – congrats)!
1.How’s your budget?
If you don’t have one, it’s hard to know whether you’re succeeding or failing in your inflow/outflow game. Anyone who’s got debts, raising children, planning for college and/or retirement needs a budget. Do yourself a favor and figure out a way to track what you’re doing with this money stuff (lots of options today) because your financial independence day gets here a lot sooner when you have one in place.
2.How’s your financial plan?
Much like the budget you now have in place (you did make a budget, RIGHT?), you’ve got to figure out what goals you’re working towards and set a dollar amount AND a time frame to achieve said goals. Flying by the seat of your pants when saving money for retirement or junior’s college fund is NOT the ideal course of action. Why worry whether you’re on track to meet your goals when you can track your progress and know right where you stand? Financial Independence Day will never be achieved unless you get this in place as well.
3. Work towards eliminating all bad debts
By bad debts – I mean unnecessary credit card balances (think store credit cards), any loans with high interest rates, etc. Generally speaking, debts that are considered acceptable are mortgages (if you feel you’re paying too much, you can always look at refinancing options), student loans (if rates are too high, see advice re: refinancing), and business loans (same applies for rates here as well). Debt generally keeps us from achieving our financial independence day sooner, so trying to eliminate it is one of the smartest things you can do (debt snowball, anyone?).
If you implement (or plan to implement) these 3 financial practices into your life (perhaps you need the right financial advisor?), you’ve just upped your chances of reaching your financial independence day that much sooner. Be a patriotic American this year and get yourself on track to celebrate your own financial independence day! After all, you owe it to yourself as an American…and you’re welcome!
Find an experienced financial advisor who helps clients achieve financial independence, works for an RIA firm, earns his/her money from fees (NOT commissions), believes in having an abundance of investment choices for clients, and has the heart & demeanor of a teacher, NOT a salesperson, and chances are you’ve found the right financial advisor to help you prepare and plan for your goals.
To learn more about Martin Federici at MF Advisers, view his Paladin Registry profile.
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