Financial Freedom: You are Your Greatest Asset!

Valentine's Day is just around the corner and PanzerGrenadier would like to wish all my readers a Happy Valentine's Day filled with joy, peace and love for significant other, family and friends.

In line with the Valentine's Day theme, today's topic is about that someone you see every morning when you wake up in the morning and before you go to sleep. No, I am not talking about your spouse or girlfriend/boyfriend or pet dog... I am talking about the man or woman in the mirror you see in the morning when you brush your teeth or before you sleep at night.

Yes... I am talking about YOU.

You are your best asset

In our journey towards financial freedom, we talk about living within your means, saving and investing and growing your net worth day by day, month by month, year by year.

Who is going to achieve it? It is yourself. You are the one who will make your vision of financial freedom come true. You are the one who will reap the benefits of being financially free and you are the one who sacrifices present wants for future needs.

It is about you!

So what about you?

Valentine's Day is associated with love and sometimes we love money, our spouse, our pets more than we love ourselves. But we must be careful not to neglect  ourselves because it is within us that lies the power to do the things necessary for us to achieve our goal of financial freedom.

How to invest in yourself

Build up your ability to increase your means

Formal and informal education that is relevant to your career or your business is important because you are the money-spinner, the rain-maker and the provider. If you do not provide the means, how will you then achieve financial freedom. Safe-guarding your means i.e. through required insurance for medical and other needs should be considered. Developing alternate or multiple sources of income is another way to increase your means. Investments in dividend or interest yielding assets such as stocks and shares, treasury bills and fixed deposits or even rental income from investment property are ways to increase your means.

Get used to living within your means

The key to living within our means is to differentiate between needs and wants. Our wants are unlimited but our needs can be moderated with discipline, focus and willpower. If you start living within your means now, you will find it much easier to adapt whatever your income level.

Save and invest prudently

You need to continually have cash flows from your career or business to generate positive cash flows to save and invest. You are your own gold mine. The gold ore that is mined for your gold (i.e income) is limited by the number of years of your working career or business. Careers nowadays tend to have a finite lifespan and hence we need to protect our gold mine i.e. our health as well as our jobs if this gold mine is to continue to yield bountiful returns for us to build up our private gold stockpile for our retirement!

Spend on what matters to us

What you spend on is a personal choice that reflects your approach and attitude to life. I realise that as my daughter will be born soon, she is going to represent the future of Panzer. My spouse and I have someone who can continue to build upon the foundations we have laid for financial freedom for our family. Spending on ourselves is still important because while my daughter is our dependent, we need to maintain our ability to generate cash flows for the future. Thus, an occasional luxury to pamper ourselves and keep us motivated for the continued journey towards financial freedom is important. But important too is the ability for us to provide for our own retirements that we can later choose to retire earlier and to spend more time with our daughter.

As Valentine's Day approaches, fret not no matter what your relationship status as personal fulfilment in life cannot be contingent purely on your marital or relationship status. It is more important for you to invest in yourself as you are your greatest asset in your journey towards financial freedom.

Be well and prosper.