The Path to Financial Freedom

You want to travel the world, retire early, start your own charity, you want to fly a business class everywhere, you can start by eliminating the words I can't afford it from your vocabulary and start asking yourself how can i afford it instead.

What's up everyone? When I started my financial journey, I was in such a bad place. So many limiting beliefs about money standing in my way, it's really hard to convey what a low place i started out from financially and emotionally so that was almost a decade ago but things did change. My financial situation changed so much seemingly overnight but when I reflected on how it all happened, I realized it was actually a result of seeds planted all along the way, habits that I formed, tiny mindset shifts that I made. Nothing happens overnight.

I want to share some financial habits to consider adopting this year. There's just something this year that helps us let go of baggage forgive yourself and get a fresh start at the same time. There's no need to wait to start making changes right. Plant the seeds now and you'll surprise yourself how different your finances look next year. So with that, let's get into the main topic.

1. Stop saying the words I can't afford it

Whenever you encounter something that's out of your budget, don't say i can't afford it. Just eliminate that phrase right now. Instead, start asking yourself how can I afford it? You don't need to know the answer but by simply asking how can I afford it, you're suggesting to your brain that a way exists and that all your brain has to do is find it. It forces you to think in new ways and just change your reality.

2. Develop a bias towards action versus thought

If there's one thing I noticed about people who seem to be in the same place year after year, it's that they have a tendency to over analyze versus just doing the thing. It's great to think about investing for your future and think about starting that business but what's really going to make a difference 10 years from now is whether you actually did it or not even. If it feels scary at some point you become acutely aware that the result of not taking action will be more painful than whatever might happen if you do take action. Successful people have a tendency to not view failure as failure. They view it more as part of the process. In other words they just fail forward. We live in a fast-moving world where opportunities come and go quickly. So think about how you can also start developing a bias towards action.

3. Choose your friends wisely

You are the average of the five people you associate with most. Do not underestimate the effects of your pessimistic, unambitious or disorganized friends. If someone isn't making you stronger, they're making you weaker right? Think about the five people that you spend the most time with. Is spending time with them been good for your finances or bad for your finances? Are they go-getters or are they the type of people that just complain about how hard everything is? Harsh as it sounds, if you want to become rich, you need to cut people like that out of your life. Spending time with the right people will motivate and inspire you like you would not believe so make it a habit to curate your inner circle. Make sure you're spending most of your time with people who have achieved the financial success that you want for yourself or at least are on that path.

4. Say no to most things

How many times have you said yes to a trip or social thing that you were on the fence about and then you just regretted it? Start becoming best friends with the word "No." The word no is actually a complete sentence in and of itself. So just get used to saying it. ylyou're the manager of your time, your priorities and where you want to go in life. If you have a dream, no one else is going to make it happen for you but you. So don't feel bad about saying no when you're asked to do something that doesn't align with your goals.

5. Read a chapter a day

You can find your financial role models from books. Read books by financially successful people. It's like they're sitting right there next to you sharing all their wisdom with you. We live in a world of tick tocks and free information on social media and online but when you sit down with a book, you're not distracted by ads and all these notifications. You can really focus and go deep with a book and you just won't get that online. Instead of watching netflix, you can read a book.