Financial Independence

Restored from the Empower Network archive (2011–2017), lightly edited to meet our current advertising standards. Views are the original author’s.

I had a problem with my computer that prevented me from posting my daily article these past two days. I’m using my roommate’s computer right now while mine is being fixed. Hope it doesn’t take too long! Today I would like to write a little bit about money! It seems to be a good place to start changing a life, don’t you agree? Here’s what I’ve learned about money:

“We get paid for bringing value to the marketplace” – Jim Rohn

That’s right, we don’t get paid for time, we get paid for the value we invest in that time. Mistakenly people say “I get paid X€ per hour”. That is incorrect. If that was the case we could just stay home and have our employer send us the check through the mail. So how come some receive more money than others? Simply by becoming more valuable! And how can one become more valuable? By improving one’s skills, abilities, talents and knowledge! And how exactly do we do that? By reading books, listening to audios, watching trainig videos… by making a commitment to excelence! Making a commitment to become better today than you were yesterday! One advice I can give you that can help you a great deal is:

“Work harder on yourself than you do on your job” – Jim Rohn

If you do this I guarantee you can get out of the Rat Race sooner than you think! How do you do that? Commit yourself to put in one or two hours everyday developing a new skill, reading a book, studying, etc.. something that will make you more valuable! Here’s another good advice to keep in mind:

“If you work on your job you can make a living, if you work on yourself you can make a fortune” – Jim Rohn

When you work on your job, unless you are your own boss, you will always be dependent on somebody else to advance on your carrer. Somebody else will decide how valuable you are, how many hours you have to work, when can you take your vacations, the duration of your vacations, etc. If you work on yourself you can become more valuable to the point where you don’t need nobody else!

Let me share with you the secret to financial independence that I learned on a book called “The Richest Man in Babylon” by George S. Clason. If you want to be financial independent you absolutely have to read this book! It reveals the methods that the richest men in Babylon used to become so powerful. This so called “secret” was well knowned by the Babylonians, who were once the richest people in the world in ancient times. So as you can see, it has been around for thousands of years! What I learned from this babylonians was something so simple as this:

“A part of all you earn is yours to keep. It should be not less than a tenth no matter how little you earn. It can be as much more as you can afford. Pay yourself first.”

This is the principle, you can make your own tweaks as long as you follow the principle. It can be more than a tenth or if you’re really in a bad financial situation as low as 1%! But no matter how much it is … pay yourself first! And what do you do with the money you put aside? Easy! You invest it to make you more money! Because I am one of those in a really bad financial situation, here’s my plan: everytime I receive money I put 1% aside for charity; it is good to help those who can not help themselves; 1% for what I call Passive Capital, which is money that I let others use and then collect interest on it; 1% for Active Capital, money that I invest to make me more money; and finally 1% to invest on myself, on Personal Development, books, cds, audios, DVDs, workshops, etc… So, right now, I’m putting aside 4% of everything I make. The better my financial situation gets, the bigger the amount I can save! The ideal scenario is to save more than you spend!

I’ve been using this method for a couple of months now and I was able to put aside more than 50€… Give it a try and let me know how it is working for you!