How To Be Financially Independent?

You want to be financially independent, as they say, or you want to reach financial freedom, which is everyone's goals. Well, I'm going to be sharing with you some of my favorite tips that have helped me to actually become financially free, and hopefully you can apply them to your life as well. My name is Dominique Broadway. I'm an award-winning personal finance expert and the bestselling author of The Wealth Decision, wherever books are sold, make sure you get yours. But let's talk about this financial freedom and independence, which everyone wants. You know, it's an interesting thing, right? And reaching financial freedom or independence is a very strategic thing that has to happen, right? There has to be a lot of strategy to actually reach those goals. And One of the very first things that has helped me, and also why I named my book this, is actually making the decision that that's what you want, right? My book is called The Wealth Decision, but in general, you have to actually make the decision that you want to be wealthy. You have to actually make the decision that you want your life to look different. Whatever you want that life to look like, you need to actually take some time and get really, really clear on what you want your life to look like. And that is one of the very first steps to reaching financial freedom. So, I challenge all of you guys to take some time and seriously think about what do you want your life to look like. One of my favorite exercises to do is to literally just sit down and think about what I want each day to look like once I'm financially free, right? Where am I waking up? What do I see the morning? Who do I hear? What do I smell? What's my schedule for the day? What's around me, right? All these different things because honestly, believe it or not, that is literally going to help you determine or have a clear vision of where you want to go and then you can start mapping out exactly how you're going to get there, okay? So that's the first thing you want to do is one, make a decision that this is what I want and all the decisions that I'm making going forward are going to be decisions that are going to get me either further away from my goal or closer to my goal. So, you have an option. You can make a bunch of broke decisions or you can make a bunch of wealthy decisions. If you're continuing to make broke decisions, you're going to end up in a broke place. But if you start making decisions that get you closer to wealth, they get you closer to riches, that gets you closer to financial freedom, then you're going to end up there. So, that's another thing I challenge you to do is think about the decision you're making all day long. Are they broke decisions? Are they wealthy decisions? Are you making moves that are getting you further away from your financial goals or getting you closer to your goals? This is going to be important because let me tell you something from the other side. I used to be on the broke side, now I'm on the other side. That it does not matter how much money you have, okay? It doesn't matter how much money you have or how much money you end up making. If you cannot manage what you have now, when you have more, it's only going to be more complicated. Which is why so many people end up getting a bunch of money and ending up broke because it's hard, right? It's hard to be broke but it's also very difficult to manage more money. So, you have to make sure that you're also being a good steward of the dollars that you have right now. and that is going to make sure that you are prepared as you start getting closer to that goal of financial freedom. The next thing you want to do, and I know nobody likes to talk about budgeting, is you have to have a spending plan or a spending strategy if you don't want to call it a budget. This is really important. If you are trying to reach financial freedom or get closer to financial freedom, you have to have a really good idea of where you are currently financially. So, you need to take some time, sit down, write down all of your income sources. Write down all of your expenses. Write down any debts that you have, any assets that you currently have. You need to get a really good picture of exactly where you are currently financially. It's going to be very hard to create a plan to get to the next level if you don't even know exactly where you are. Because understanding where you are is going to get you a nice solid starting point, right? So, you're like, "Hey, I know right now I'm negative $20,000," right? Or however many dollars. And my goal is to have at least a $100,000 net worth. What do I need to do to get there, right? So, that's going to be the first point. Maybe it could be, "You know what? I'm looking at this spending plan and I realize that I need to raise my income. I need to make more money," right? Or maybe I need to get rid of this car that honestly isn't bringing me joy or this home that maybe you're overpaying for. Because for many people, there's hundreds if not thousands of dollars that's literally getting spent every single month that is being allocated to stuff that does not bring you joy. What if instead you were able to take some of those hundreds of dollars or even thousands of dollars and allocate them towards investments or allocate them towards things that are going to get you closer to this goal of financial freedom. And that's why this step of understanding where you are currently financially and creating that spending plan and looking at your budget and getting real, real about where you are currently financially is going to be very, very important. Okay, so now that we have our spending plan together and we have a clear understanding of where we are, we want to make sure that we have an emergency fund. This is going to be important because you know why? Life is unpredictable as hell, and y'all know that, right? One day where everyone has COVID, the next day, I don't know, interest rates are so high, and then bananas cost $50. Life is all over the place, right? AI is trying to come take all the jobs. Robots are working in the factories now. We have to make sure that you have an emergency fund. Unfortunately for a lot of people, they end up going back to poverty or being back broke because life happens and they don't have an emergency fund. right? And so this is going to be important. I remember clients when I work with clients one-on-one, they'd be like, Dominique, what am I saving for? What's the purpose of that? What's the purpose? And I'm like, you're saving for when shit hits the fan, right? When things don't go as perfectly as we think they're always going to go. We're saving for when that time comes where maybe we get laid off our job and we don't have income for a while. We're saving for when all of a sudden the world gets COVID and shuts down for multiple years. How can we survive? And I think our generations have definitely seen that we have a lot of circumstances that can totally come. And even when you think that, oh my God, this worst-case thing can't happen, it can totally happen. And I think we've all learned that. Okay, so you want to make sure that you have your emergency fund. The saying is 3 to 6 months. I honestly feel like in these crazy times that we live in, 3 to 6 months is great. I think it's a great starting point. I think people need to have 6 to 12 months. Of their monthly expenses saved in a high-yield savings account. This is important because life is really crazy right now, and I have a feeling it's probably going to get a little crazier again and again and again before we leave this earth, okay? So that's going to be a really, really important thing, is to have your emergency fund. Next up is reducing your debt. One of the main blockers for people trying to reach financial freedom is debt. Debt literally just is, is money that could be used towards other things, right? It could be used towards investing or making your money grow for you, but instead you're using this money to literally pay down debt, which is important. But think about once those debts get paid away, you're 100% closer to financial freedom because essentially with financial freedom, it's not having to worry about all these other things that constantly are pulling at your money. So reducing your debt and managing your debt is going to be key. So going back to creating that strategy, now think about in the beginning, if you're like, hey, this is where I am currently financially. I have this income, I have these debts. If I take the next year to pay off these debts, then in a year I will have a surplus of $3,000, $4,000 a month. And now we're getting close to that financial freedom. I can take that $3,000, $4,000, I can invest it. I can have it growing for me, I can have it in dividends, I could be getting more consistent income from it, etc., etc. And then you figure out where do I want to live? What do I want my lifestyle to look like? And now you're able to create a life that can be lived based on what you have and not necessarily figuring out how you have to cover all of these different deficits that you have in place. Okay? Next is investing. Now, this is going to be key when it comes to financial freedom. And I can tell you for me, it has been a game changer in my own personal life. Investing. I'm also a trader as well. But investing in general and eventually if you would like to trading. But even just investing, okay? Now, for a lot of people, they want to reach financial freedom but all they're doing is going to work and saving. Going to work and saving. Going to work and saving. And that's great. Even if you have your money in a high-yield savings account, that's great. You're getting that 3, 4, 5% return. However, that's not going to get you to the roads of riches that we all are trying to get to. You have to make sure that your money is actually invested. This could be into stocks, this could be into mutual funds, this could be into exchange-traded funds, this could be into real estate. All the different things, right? So, essentially even in my own personal path to financial freedom, yes, putting money in the stock market is great. But then also putting money into real estate, right? And then also making investments into private things and also having other assets that can grow. So, year over year, my net worth is continuing to grow. I am literally getting payments back from angel investments. I'm getting— seeing my money grow in the market every day if I decide to get up or not. It's still continuing to grow. And that is why investing for me has been a huge part of my financial freedom, but it can be the same for you. Now, I remember watching or reading this story a few years ago. It was about a gentleman that worked at a toll booth in Baltimore, Maryland. And I think he made, you know, maybe like $10, $12 an hour or something like his whole life. Like he never— he got a little bit of raises, but nothing, nothing crazy. And then when he died, this man had like millions of dollars, right? It was a couple million dollars, maybe like $1.5 or $2 million, and they were like, where did all this money come from? And basically when they realized— actually, I think it was before he died, he retired and he kind of was sharing this with his family, and he was basically saying that he lived below his means, or basically did not spend all the money that he was making. He kept his expenses low, and anything in excess of that, he invested it. He put it into the stock market. He said that one of the people that would come through the toll booth every day would just give him little investing tips and just tell him things about going in the market and taught him about the market day by day. He slowly over time just putting his money in, he retired and he had a nice chunk of change. Now, like, how did you do this based on the salary you worked in a toll booth or like a parking lot booth? And it was just slow and steady. So, this is why I say that financial freedom could literally be on the other side of you actually just taking action and understanding that slow and steady is also a sexy way to make money as well. All your money may not be made today or tomorrow. But if you are seeking financial freedom, as I mentioned, you have to be making decisions every single day that's going to get you closer to that goal. So, if you're saying, "Hey, I have an extra $1,000 a month. I'm going to take that $1,000 and put that in the market. And I'm going to have it growing." Over time, it's going to help you reach those goals. And you can eventually get to a point by investing, Maybe even learning how to trade. But more importantly, even being able to live off dividends so that you don't have to continuously work anymore. And getting that goal of financial freedom a lot of times also depends on your lifestyle, right? There's some people like, "Hey, I'm going to move to Bali and just be like take all my money and because I can get more there." That's an idea, right? If you're deciding that you're trying to reach financial freedom in New York or Miami, it's going to be a little bit different, right? You have to have even more dollars. So, that's another thing that you want to think about as well. So hopefully these tips have helped you a little bit. Actually, let me add one more, one more before I tell you I hope these tips have— is taking action. That's one thing I want to say. Taking action is really, really important. Most people are procrastinators. I'm a procrastinator as well. I recovered from it, and then sometimes life happens and it triggers it again, but then I'm trying to get back out of it, right? And so I want you guys to understand that action is going to be really important. And if you have a setback on this journey, it's okay. You learn from the lesson, you do better, and you keep it going. But yes, you can sit here and watch these YouTube videos all day. Unfortunately, there's only a little teeny percentage of you guys are going to take action. Those are the people that end up becoming financially free, reaching their goals, etc., etc. Most of you are going to just keep swiping and watch another video, look up 10 years later and you haven't done anything. You're still seeking financial freedom. So, most importantly, with all these things that we just talked about today, Taking action is going to be important, but making sure that you're making wealthy decisions— name of the book— every single day is honestly the name of the game, and it's truly the secret key to becoming wealthy. So hopefully you enjoyed this video. Make sure you subscribe, tell a friend, share it, hit the like button, and I'll see you soon.