If this statement or something similar is your mission in life like it was in ours then you are in the right place to make it happen.
We retired at 45 and 40 respectively at least 5-10 years after it could have truly been achieved if we had understood and been on this life path sooner. Our mission from here is to now pass on this knowledge as best we possibly can to enable you the reader to follow the same path to your own freedom.
So without further ado here are the stages that we see as the path to Financial Independence and Freedom:-
The Critical Foundation Stage
- Minimum five figure rainy day fund or at least 1 year of expenses.
- Zero credit card debt.
- Zero car finance or no car.
- Paying off the mortgage as soon as possible in order to remove any job security uncertainty and never again caring about employment layoff threats.
- Accumulating a pension taking full advantage of employer contributions.
The Asset Accumulation Phase
- Accumulating rental property to create income streams and as tax depreciation vehicles.
- Accumulating an income stream from index funds or dividend stocks and interest.
- Using rewards credit cards to accumulate passive wealth.
The Passive Income Earnings Crossover
- Continued or new employment in a career that brings joy on a daily basis.
- FIRE Passive Income lifestyle, be it Nomadic or In-place.
- Entrepreneurship – start the business you always wanted using play money you can afford to lose and have it not affect you psychologically, comfortable in the knowledge that if it all fails you already have enough residual wealth to be unaffected.
- Take calculated investing risk using play money that you can accept losing.
Dividend Nomadism
So beyond the crossover what is Dividend Nomadism?
Well the Financial Independence from receiving passive income be it Dividend or otherwise has basically now given you the geographical flexibility to go live your life wherever you want whenever you want with whomever you want. No longer constrained to the place you were born or a gnarly commute away from where some corporation you work for chose to locate it’s offices. It places you in full control for maybe the first time in your life.
It’s also not to be confused with Digital Nomadism where you seemingly take all the stress and deadlines that come with a regular job and experience them from a laptop on a beach paradise in Southern Thailand instead..
Sometimes Digital Nomadism works out very well for people, it just isn’t really necessary at the point you have enough passive income streams to pay for your lifestyle wherever you are. No boss, no corporation, no burnout, just living life for you on your own terms.
You finally have a chance to let your mind be free from silly things like alarm clocks, deadlines and debt payments so it can now figure out who you truly are and the type of lifestyle you want to pursue without societal pressures.
Isn’t this how life was meant to be?