My First Step To Financial Freedom

So for just over a month, I have been moonlighting as an investment consultant where I have been given the green light to take some of the technical knowledge that I have gained about investing in the stock market and to put it into real practice.  I am not required to put in any given number of hours, and I am not paid an hourly fee, so this is really not a job.  My passive income generated from this is based on a percentage of the monthly profit that I generate off of the account.  I classify this as passive income, because after some initial struggles and mental blocks that I had to overcome, including having the strength to make decisions even when I wasn't 100% confident in myself, eventually this can develop into an opportunity where i put in very little time and effort every month and will continue to earn monthly income off of the profits.  Also, since I didn't have to put any money into the account, my return on investment (ROI) is infinity, thus proving that there are such things in life as an infinite ROI.  

Now I'm definitely not in a position where I am ready to walk away from my career, nor am I even wanting to.  I have found that the confidence I've gained knowing that I can truly achieve financial freedom and it's not a matter of if, but when, has instilled in me a stronger work ethic when I am at my job.  Now I'm even more determined to work harder while I'm there because the bigger I can make my quarterly bonus, the more money I will have to invest and the faster I will achieve financial freedom.  If you can't tell, I'm pretty excited about the opportunities that are starting to find me.  Tomorrow I will be travelling out of town to investigate another potential income opportunity for me that if you had told me 6 months ago was a possibility, I would have told you that it would be impossible.

I truly hope that those working towards financial freedom can gain a little bit of confidence from what I'm writing here.  If you have your own success stories, please send them to me.  I would love to start a network group of people that are working towards financial freedom so that we could bounce ideas off each other and keep each other motivated.  If anyone is interested, let me know.

How To Attain Your Goals

Corporations are very good at setting goals and putting together a plan to achieve those goals.  Since most of my career has been in sales, I've learned from past managers how my sales targets are generally the last thing calculated and come down from the upper corporate ladder after the "brass" has figured out how much the company wants to grow for the year.  After that, it was my job to utilize my skills to hit that goal.  In my personal investments, side businesses, and passive income opportunities, I've realized that something that has seriously hindered my progress and even contributed to failure in a couple of ventures is that my goals were either undefined, too weakly defined, or completely off-base.  Goals are absolutely vital to success in escaping the "Rat Race" and gaining financial freedom.

A goal is something you plan to achieve, in its simplest definition.  If you don't plan to achieve it, you won't take action; then it's a dream.  A goal needs to be specific and measurable.  It should have a time element, possibly milestones along the way to track success, and maybe even an earnings target.  A goal should also be attainable.  If you set your goal way too high, you'll either never get started because the task seems so daunting or give up on yourself way too fast after the slightest setback.  But on the flip side, don't let yourself off the hook and stay in the same rut forever.

Here's an example of a poorly constructed goal: "I want to retire comfortably and not have to worry about money."  It's a great idea, but it's vague and unattainable without getting some clarification.  Remember: without action, even the best goals are nothing more than just a dream.