Make 2008 the Year of Financial Freedom

To be financially free is something that everybody should aspire to. But financial freedom does not come without a lifestyle change. Are you ready to accept that challenge?

Taking care of your finances is of the utmost important but don't despair if you have just muddled through it is never to late to get a firm grip. Don't try to take a short cut by looking to others to tell you how to sort out your finances you need to find your own unique path.

Achieving financial freedom is a journey in learning how to make money work for you. But before embarking on this journey you must humbly acknowledge that enough is enough and that you must change.

A good way to start taking control is to imagine that you are the CEO of your life. This means that you will be responsible for leading your organisation in all of its needs and objectives. You and you alone will be responsible for correcting mistakes and pointing your organisation to new directions.

This journey will never be an easy one with your mind rebelling against your new vision and against you breaking free from apathy towards money.

You are going to acquire new skills and start living a life that is disciplined. Self-discipline is cultivated day by day and has to extend to your thoughts, words and actions.

Once you have acquired some of these skills required to help you start fighting for your financial freedom you then need to start applying them.

It's time to assess your present financial situation.

This exercise in itself can be nerve racking but take heart some people who thought that they were in dire straits have discovered that with a little focused effort they can get themselves straight whilst others who thought they were doing just fine have found that after doing a financial assessment that they are in a real hole.

Be hard and honest, to achieve financial freedom you cannot afford to allow yourself the luxury of carrying emotions or perceptions that allow you to think of yourself as a victim.

Should you find yourself in the group that has realised that they are in a real mess you need your energy to focus on learning to hunt for clarity from your past. Expect no pity and offer no pity. Offering others pity will just reinforce your sense of being a victim.

The first thing to do is find out exactly where your money is going. It may be useful to use a software programme like Quicken to generate reports on a monthly and annual basis.

Keeping track of regular monthly bills such as the mortgage, electricity bills, telephone bills etc is fairly straightforward the difficulty comes with the hidden expenses such as vacations, entertainment etc.. It is easy to just write these off but that is the worst possible thing you could do. You must ignore no outgoings whatsoever from the mortgage to the light bulbs.

To become financially free means learning how money can work for you. Learning how to acquire assets whilst decreasing liabilities. Simply put an asset makes you money and a liability costs money to keep. So focus on purchasing assets that will make you money.

To simplify things even further; most peoples money flows like this: income from job pays liabilities ( mortgage, credit cards, car payments and other loans) plus expenses (taxes, food, car, entertainment etc.) and a financially free person's money flows like this: Assets (real estate, bonds, stocks, notes, gold, business ) generate income (interest, rental income, dividends etc).

Basically the financial free pay for their expenses from their assets and not their work. Plus taxes for your assets income can be deferred or offset.

Achieving financial freedom sounds like hard work but once you gather momentum it can be fun. But keep in mind that only those who can control their thoughts and emotions will succeed in claiming financial freedom.