The 9 Steps To Achieving Financial Freedom
Have you ever wanted to achieve financial freedom? To quit worrying about your next paycheque and start living life the way you want to? To devote more time to your friends and family instead of hustling to pay the bills?
If so, you might want to read on.
Suze Orman’s book, ‘The 9 Steps to Financial Freedom’ outlines nine things you can do to set yourself up for success psychologically by weeding out your limiting beliefs around money.
Here are the key takeaways from the book, teaching you how to break free of toxic money habits and start living your life comfortably.
1. Your past holds the key to your future
Your limiting beliefs and ideas about money are often deep-rooted in significant events of your past. Memories from your childhood are often accompanied by strong feelings that may affect your relationship with money without you being aware of it. The first step in reshaping these beliefs is to find out what caused them in the first place.
Painful memories from your younger years, such as working hard to earn extra cash only to have it stolen from you, might subconsciously lead to the belief that no matter how hard you work, it won’t be worth it.
Tease out these memories and move on to Step 2.
2. Conquer your fears and reshape your beliefs
Once you’ve identified the root cause of your fears around money, you can go about reshaping them to create new truths. You’ll have to be painfully honest and patient with yourself during this phase, as long-held beliefs are often hard to let go of. Once you’ve connected your current fear to a past memory, you can dig deeper and work through how the specific event made you feel.
Being able to link current feelings to past events can trigger ‘aha’-moments and make it easier to work through unresolved issues.
3. Lay your expenses out on the table
The reason why many people have such a bad handle on their finances is that they fail to keep track of what they’re buying in the first place. Most of us are spending more than we’re earning without knowing it.
In this next step, Orman recommends taking your past two years’ worth of records or bank statements and dividing up your spending into categories, then calculating a monthly average.
This way, you’ll be able to see what you’re spending the most on and identify areas in which you can save more. Once you pay attention to where your hard-earned money is going, you’ll be less likely to splash out on unnecessary items.
4. Write your will
Being responsible for your loved ones by making sure everything is set up to take care of them should the worst happen is the safety-net you should undoubtedly have if you can afford it.
But diving into the world of wills, trusts and insurance can seem like trying to navigate through thick fog while wearing sunglasses. That’s why Orman recommends contacting an expert, in this case, to help make sure everything is set up properly.
Having everything in place and taken care of the way you want will give you a sense of control and peace of mind.
5. Get your finances in order
Pay off any remaining credit card debt, student loans and put money aside for your retirement. This is the number one way to instantly feel better about your finances.
Leaving nothing to be owed creates a firm foundation and sets you up for success in the future. It also prevents you from having your earnings being steadily tapped out of your account without you realizing it.
Tie up any loose ends first before moving on to bigger things.
6. Trust your gut instincts
Once your finances are is in order, the next thing you’ll want to focus on is building your wealth. And in order to build wealth, you first need to get comfortable with your money.
In this step, Orman lays out a seven-page questionnaire to help you get more comfortable, so you can begin to trust yourself more than you trust other people.
Following your instincts is especially important when it comes to making important decisions such as deciding where and how to invest your money, and these decisions can only come from having a close relationship with your cash.
7. You will get back what you put out
The long-standing debate about whether money can bring happiness is overturned with the question: what if happiness can bring money?
As the law of attraction states, selfless giving will always be rewarded by getting back what you put out.
Donating to charities and people in need instead of keeping an iron grip over every penny in your account will not only bring you good karma, but it might also just bring about the right psychological mindset and open you up to receiving in different ways.
8. Take the bad with the good
While on your financial path you will make mistakes – that’s a given for everyone. We can make the most of such blunders by accepting and learning from each situation.
Instead of dismissing and glossing over your so-called failures, use them to propel you forward towards success. Learn from them. Grow from them. Build your foundation on your newfound knowledge.
Money will come and go, but knowledge and life experience are priceless.
9. The best things in life money can’t buy
Recognize that the true value of wealth isn’t the ability to buy happiness through material possessions and a luxurious lifestyle. Even billionaires and money-laden CEOs have problems that their money can’t fix.
The true value of wealth is not to have enough money in the bank, it is to create inner peace.
Conclusion
Achieving financial freedom is not something that happens overnight. And the steps detailed in Suze Orman’s book, ‘The 9 Steps to Financial Freedom’ are not purely action-based.
There’s a lot of psychological aspects to sift through before you can begin accumulating wealth for yourself.
After all, the key to financial freedom lies in conquering your fears around money and using your newfound confidence to build wealth the right way.
