Financial independence is the ability to live well without spending your time working for a living.

You have a unique opportunity; to live a life of your own choosing, to have a great deal of personal freedom and not be tied to a lifelong occupation. This opportunity can be achieved with hard work, concentration on goals, and control of your finances. This plan is not about getting rich quick. This plan is the slow and sure method of becoming financially independent. It is a method of making a series of decisions over time that will bring you to your desired goal.

Here's the executive summary:

Rearrange your life to spend less than you make. Keep investing the surplus and review your purchases to learn from mistakes. It may take a year or two to change to a lower cost lifestyle, to complete a debt elimination plan, and to find employment that pays well and doesn't add a lot of cost to your life. When you get to the point where you can invest about $1500 per month, maintain that lifestyle and level of investment for a period of about 15 years.

The simple budget spreadsheets in this article allow you to track your expenses and learn from mistakes. They clearly show that you must prioritize purchases rather than spending on impulse. The media pushes a consumer mentality and has brainwashed most people into thinking that debt is good and living beyond your means is the norm. You may have to break this materialist mentality in your own mind and fight the negative thoughts of those around you who strongly believe in the way they were programmed. You may need to reconsider what is really important to you in your life.

The key is to focus on achieving your goals and to rearrange your life priorities based on what you really want to do. Money is only a tool to help you live out your dreams and goals.

If you are willing to play the game of living well on little money, and accumulating surplus income into investments, the payoff is that you will be able to live a life of leisure, spending your time and energy on things that you choose to do. If you can invest about $1500 per month for 15 years, you will be able to live on the interest for the rest of your life. This amount is really just an example in round numbers, and you should calculate your own investment goal, but for the sake of getting started, $1500 per month is a good goal.

Not sure where $1500 a month is going to come from? Look for the help and advice on how to free up income for investment in this website. There is a step by step plan with spreadsheets to help you inventory your current financial situation, and monitor your expenses. If you have online banking, you can use automatic payments to dedicated checking and savings accounts to keep your budget in line. This article also tries to give some basic advice on how to change your lifestyle to insure financial success:

*Continually look at improving your income, either by finding a better job or by earning income on the side.

*Find a low cost place to live that minimizes your reliance on an automobile.

*Focus on selecting household goods and appliances that you absolutely need and that will last you the 15 years (more or less) that it will take to make your investments.

*Go through a process of selecting strategic purchases that will benefit you the most, and save money for those purchases.

*Eliminate consumer debt.

*Maintain an emergency fund.

*Pare down your monthly expenses.

*Look for ways to live well, frugally.

*Celebrate the rise in your investment account.

The real value of this using this plan is learning the process of consciously choosing what to spend your money on rather than spending on impulse.

Are you ready to start picking out your Cadillac and luxury yacht? Sorry, this site is about how to choose low cost alternatives that improve your life, not luxury items that put you into debt.

If you reconfigure your life to live well on little money, and find well paid employment so you can invest the surplus income, you will find that by the time you are able to quit your job and live on your investment income, it will be easy to continue to live well on a moderate income. Fifteen years goes by quickly, and when you complete your plan, your time will be your own!

Time flies like an arrow. Action you take today will affect the quality of your life in the future.

Next

Getting Started

Debt Management

Expense Log

Strategic Purchases

Expense Estimate

Cash Flow

Work and Career

Wealth Accumulation

Frugality is Freedom

Living Well

Pitfalls