Financial freedom: Investing for the future, focussing on the present

I have discussed how the dream or reason that drives you towards financial freedom is important in focussing your hearts, minds and souls towards your financial goals.

Investing for the future, focussing on the present

You are not a robot following a program mindlessly and executing tasks repetitively. You are a human being filled with emotions, feelings and moods. In order for you to invest for the future, you need to focus on the present, to do the things daily that leads you surely and steadily towards your goals in financial freedom. You need to have a strong sense of purpose behind why you are pursuing the tasks and activities that move you towards financial freedom.

Let's recap what does financial freedom means to you:

To be able to have the targetted investible savings that generates passive income that exceeds our living expenses.

It's that simple. To be financially free you need to live within your means, save and invest and grow your means. This will help you generate sufficient investible savings over time which earns sufficient passive income to cover your living expenses. When you achieve that, you are no longer trapped in the time-money trade-off since you are free to spend your time to do whatever you want as your investible savings works for you to earn that income while you are sipping coffee watching the world go by during weekday mornings. ;-)

Focussing on the present means translating the financial freedom principle of living within your means, saving and investing and growing your means into daily achievable actions. Plans without action gets us nowhere. Action with plans gets us somewhere but not where we want to go.

Focussing on the present: getting you moving towards financial freedom

I like blogging because I have enjoyed writing and public speaking ever since I became a toastmaster. Blogging is also cathartic for me, i.e. it allows me to articulate my thoughts and at times vent off some frustrations in life. It also helps me to clarify my thoughts. I have made blogging my hobby because unlike other hobbies, blogging with AdSense helps me grow my means. I earn literally five cents ten cents everyday that adds up for my daughter's college tuition fund. This is one way where I am growing my means even as am a salaryman.

Living within my means comes from realising that materialism will only satisfy you briefing before the you hanker for the next "thing" to make you feel happy! Thus, a life spent chasing after materialism will never satisfy in my own experience. I realise that as the number of candles on my birthday cake grows, the more I realise happiness comes from the basics of health, happiness and family. Small luxuries now and then make life more enjoyable truly but they are to be sampled sparingly so as to preserve the delicate sweet flavour. Indulging in luxuries all the time spoils out palate and makes for one to live beyond your means.

Saving and investing comes from every small step. Yes, interest rates are pathetically low now. Singapore fixed deposits are yielding close to 1% plus. But that is no excuse to be saving even as inflation wipes out our savings, to mitigate the effects of inflation is just one way to take concrete action not to let our monies wither away at 0.25% in bank savings.

Investing in the future is to act in the present

You can achieve financial freedom. It is within our grasp by taking hold of our present and making small changes to our lives to align our mission, vision and values towards those conducive towards financial freedom. I took initial steps years ago and made a conscious decision to pay off my loan aggressively. Now I can concentrate on fatherhood and work-life balance and invest in the bringing up of my daughter as the roof over our heads belongs to us and not the bank! I am working for my daughter and family now and know that every bit of passive income I generate will go into building up financial freedom for my family and myself.

Be well and prosper.