How to Get Freedom – Real Financial Independence

Retirement is going out of fashion

“Retirement” is becoming an outdated notion … “old technology” so to speak.

Not because it is common place and everyone is doing it (the opposite is the unfortunate reality) but rather, times are changing.

Whilst there are still many people who “retire” in the strictest sense of the word, increasingly, people are working longer and living longer.

Some work longer because they like to keep active and are happy to keep working (although truth be told, they would like more choice about it).
Some work longer because they love what they do and don’t ever want to stop.
Others work longer because they have no option – they need the money to survive.

What about you?

What does it look like for you, when you get “there”?

This is important because most people have unrealistic and simplistic views. In other words, they don’t think big enough and they are underestimating what they’ll need.

Others resign themselves to the fact that “whatever will be, will be”, as it were. If they don’t have enough then they’ll just live with it. They give up!

While a few have their financial independence in hand, many live in denial and convince themselves based on simplistic math and fraught rationale that they will be OK.

Others still, claim with some authority that they don’t want to be “rich” (how crass!!). They just want to be financially secure (although just how and when that will be achieved is unclear).

The clock is ticking …

Better to step back now (don’t put it off or delay it) and think carefully about what you would like. That, we believe, is the starting point.

TIP: Those who are financially independent, truly free, or on the way; don’t always know at the start: how they will get there, where to start and they don’t wait for everything to be perfect, to be ready. They get on and get help if they need it. They go after it …

It costs nothing to get started or fine tune things

Painting a clear picture and explicitly outlining, in writing, how life looks, where you will be, with whom and what you will be doing along with, perhaps more importantly, what you will indeed be retiring from is an excellent place to start.

It is difficult to start too early. It’s time – NOW
If you haven’t really thought about it, it’s time – seriously.

If you are on your way already let’s see if we can sharpen things up – help get you there sooner.

Thinking about it starts with outlining what you want.
We advise that you think big (not small). That’s because you may need more money than you think.

Anyway, why not go after what you truly want?

How much money will you need?
At WISEplanning, we have a system for working it out.

What’s useful about it is that it allows you to step back with better perspective, consider some items that may have been excluded from your thinking and to get a more reliable picture.

This is important because if we underestimate it, it’s quite difficult to go back and fix things up later. Pretty much, we get one chance to get this right.

Although everyone is different, in our experience, if you believe that $1million (that is excluding the home you live in) is sufficient, there is a good chance that you will underfund your “retirement.” At the risk of sounding dramatic, that’s a big risk right there.

Consider these two factors …
Retirement, financial independence, financial freedom or whatever you would like to call it, will require funding by you.

Whether or not you rely on the Government pension is a choice and one that does bear some thinking about.

We suggest caution about relying on future Governments to determine how much money you will receive throughout those years of independence, that we all look forward to.

Two things:

People are living longer. That’s just a fact. For example, our analysis is based on our clients living at least until age 100. Have you thought about what your “beam-up date” so to speak might be?
There is a real explosion in health sciences, which simply means that the technology to keep us alive, functioning well, comfortable and healthy is increasing exponentially.
- The reality is that future Governments will likely not provide you and I with the new technology that emerges every day. To be clear, you may need additional money to buy that technology yourself.
- For many years, WISEplanning has recommended that our clients allow 30% of their total assets for long term health care beyond aged 70. This may sound like a lot of money, however, health care and particularly new technology can be very expensive.

Financial independence is not just about how much you allocate to food and groceries every week. Obviously, there are many other expenses and lifestyle choices that should be considered.

Understanding your requirements early means that you have a better chance of positioning for them – most or all of them. Not some or none.

How to engineer enough money to be financially independent

We can narrow this down to three simple steps:

Mindset Alignment. The reality is that your mindset is a function of a lifetime of your conditioning, what you believe to be true, your ideas, your attitudes, habits and therefore, your behaviour. Aligning your behaviour with your big picture, big ticket goals is the key to getting enough money.“Mindset trumps education and intelligence.” – Peter Flannery
Learn how to make money work for you. Investing is not complicated – once you know how. Learn how to become an unassuming, quiet millionaire.