Step 1 – Deciding on Your Financial Future
In this series, discover the first of four critical steps you need to take to achieve financial freedom with less stress and more certainty with financial mastermind, Willie Hooks.
Your path to financial freedom
The journey to financial freedom typically starts with some simple questions.
These are simple, powerful questions. And yet, most people need help to answer them, even with all the fintech apps, training seminars, financial planners, and personal finance books available.
Most people don’t know what it takes to reach their financial freedom goals. When you assess your current financial progress, you may discover that you are not on the path to financial freedom at all. Instead, you may be falling further behind in reaching your financial goals each year.
However, the most important step you can take is to reject the illusion of building wealth and start implementing the strategies and practices you need to make meaningful progress on your journey to financial freedom today.
“The best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago. The second-best time is now.”
– Chinese Proverb
Financial Success Systems
One of the most important things you need to achieve financial freedom is a Financial Success System.
A Financial Success System operates the same way that a Global Positioning System (GPS) does when traveling from one destination to another.
When you are on a journey and have a GPS system, you must plug in your desired destination and allow the system to navigate you to your goal. The GPS assesses your current location and chosen destination and performs a gap analysis.
Once the analysis is done, the system performs hundreds of calculations, which allows it to map out the most effective routes. The GPS provides a highly responsive, data-driven action plan to get you to your destination faster and with less risk.
As you move towards your destination, your GPS is constantly providing information and updates on your progress. If there is a traffic jam or a hazard along the road, it will immediately plot alternative routes so that you can get to your destination on time and with diminished risk.
Your financial GPS
Imagine having a tool that performs the same function as a GPS when plotting your journey to financial freedom.
Imagine how wonderful it would be to have a data-driven system that plots out the financial moves you need to make to reach your financial goals faster, easier, and with more certainty. If financial barriers arise on your path, your Financial Success System will quickly calculate ways to get around the challenges so that you can reach your financial freedom goal on time and with less stress.
Data-driven financial planning
The technology at the heart of a GPS allows it to access live data and make hundreds of calculations on possible routes to get to your destination. Your GPS is designed to reduce your traveling time, eliminate the possibility of getting lost and avoid high-risk situations.
So, just as with a GPS, you need advanced financial technology to make the hundreds, if not thousands, of calculations necessary to find the optimal path to achieve your financial freedom goals. You also want the system to accelerate your progress, reduce the chances of making the wrong decisions, and help you make informed decisions about risk.
How do you build a Financial Success System
There is little doubt that having a Financial Success System is critical to your journey to financial freedom. You can build your own Financial Success System by following these steps:
You can download the FREE Journey to Financial Freedom Worksheet below this blog and use it to build your own Financial Success System today.
Step 1: Identify your specific, measurable financial goals
“If you don’t know where you are going, you will not achieve Financial Freedom.”
– Willie Hooks
1.1 The Goal
The first step in building your Financial Success System is to decide on your desired destination.
Remember that a GPS will only be effective if you provide specific and measurable data. You can’t type in “my mother’s house” and expect to arrive at Thanksgiving dinner on time. You will need to input your mother’s street address or GPS coordinates for the system to work.
When building your Financial Success System, you will need to decide on a specific, measurable financial goal and express it in a dollar amount. Just as with the GPS, you need to provide your Financial Success System with an “address” for your future financial goal to arrive at the right place at the right time. An example would be that you want to earn $7000 dollars in passive income in five years’ time.
When setting a goal, the S.M.A.R.T. Goal strategy can be beneficial. A SMART Goal is specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound. This is an effective method to use when structuring your goals.
Download our FREE Financial Journey Worksheet at the bottom of this post to capture your goal.
1.2 The Lifestyle
The next action you need to take when building your Financial Success System is to decide on the lifestyle you will be living when you achieve your goal.
Ask yourself the following questions:
- What will your lifestyle look like when earning $7,000 a month in passive income?
- What will you be doing differently?
- What will you have in your life that was missing before?
This detailed description of your future state needs to be written in a positive and present tense format as though you have already achieved it. This future state description will allow you to actualize your goal.
1.3 The Fuel
While a GPS will provide you with all the information you need to get to your desired destination, there are a few other resources you will need for a successful journey. You will need a reliable car, enough gas, and perhaps a few snacks to enjoy on the way.
When building your Financial Success System, you will also need to include the resources that will enable your successful financial journey.
When you embark upon a journey to financial freedom, instead of a car and a gas budget, you will need internal resources, such as motivation, drive, energy, and focus, to keep you moving forward. If you truly believe that you are both capable and worthy of achieving your goal, you will find more MOTIVATION, DRIVE, ENERGY, AND FOCUS, ensuring that your journey to financial freedom is successful.
Remember, moving toward a goal that will affect meaningful change in your life is easier. If your goal is tied to the things you value most, such as family, community, or a dream you hold near and dear to your heart, you will find the motivation to continue to take positive action, even in the face of challenges.
How to take the next step in building your Financial Success System
“It’s a dangerous business going out your door. You step onto the road, and if you don’t keep your feet, there’s no knowing where you might be swept off to.”
– J.R.R. Tolkien
The most important step in building your Financial Success System is deciding on your financial future. Once you have a clear, measurable, and achievable financial goal enabling you to live the lifestyle you desire, you will have the motivation needed to take the next step.
Returning to the analogy of a GPS, once you have punched in your desired location, your GPS will establish your current position and perform a gap analysis between your current position and your desired goal.
Make sure to read Part 2 of the Four Steps to Financial Freedom to learn how to analyze your current financial position.
Download the FREE Journey to Financial Freedom Worksheet below to complete all four steps in building your Financial Success System.
Make sure to white-list our email address to ensure that you receive your download.
