{"id":75100,"date":"2017-08-19T14:30:25","date_gmt":"2017-08-19T20:30:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.biggerpockets.com\/renewsblog\/?p=75100"},"modified":"2024-02-14T15:56:38","modified_gmt":"2024-02-14T22:56:38","slug":"2015-10-02-simple-secret-financial-freedom","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.biggerpockets.com\/blog\/2015-10-02-simple-secret-financial-freedom","title":{"rendered":"The Surprisingly Simple “Secret” to Financial Freedom Most 9 to 5-ers Overlook"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cI\u2019m ready to get serious<\/em>\u00a0about financial freedom!”<\/p>\n

I used to be that guy\u2014loudly proclaiming my intentions to build wealth and passive income, with\u00a0the desire to invest in anything and everything that might grant me the freedom from a life of 9-5 drudgery.<\/p>\n

I was working 40-50 hours a week at a steady 9 to 5, earning a nice, median salary. I had an affordable, newish car, a nice apartment, and the best television package money could buy.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a good thing that most people out there are like I was\u2014because I recognize now just how weak and beatable<\/em> I was. Just how lazy and incompetent. I for sure wasn\u2019t serious<\/em>. Thank goodness that most people are like I was. Otherwise, financial freedom might be difficult<\/em>\u00a0to achieve.<\/p>\n

See, as a single person starting from zero, with no dependents and a decent job paying more than $40,000 per year, barring some extreme exception, I should have been building wealth at at least<\/em>\u00a0a rate of $10,000, if not $20,000-$30,000, per year\u2014if I were really \u201cserious\u201d.<\/p>\n

If I were married with or without kids, then progress towards financial freedom should have been far <\/em>more\u00a0rapid. With\u00a0two\u00a0people in my household earning serious incomes (and with tax advantages that I can only dream of), we would make our progress that much faster. Again, this is\u00a0assuming that we truly were \u201cserious\u201d about building wealth.<\/p>\n

Now, most people aren\u2019t serious about building wealth, and that\u2019s totally OK. I don\u2019t intend to write for the average person interested in nice cars, fancy hilltop houses, and three meals out a week. I\u2019m not judging them, and financial freedom is not everyone\u2019s goal.<\/p>\n

Nope, this article is intended for all the 9 to 5-ers out there, starting from scratch or close to it who\u00a0really badly want financial freedom. I want to show them that as a fellow 9 to 5-er, there is only one way that truly makes sense\u00a0for you to get started on your journey to financial freedom.<\/p>\n

And you aren\u2019t going to like it.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s not by investing\u00a0or building multiple income streams. It\u2019s a far easier and more common sense approach:<\/p>\n

Preserving capital.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

\"tax-consultant\"<\/p>\n

If you stop reading right there, that\u2019s your prerogative. It\u2019s likely that you\u2019ll never, ever have the chance to compete in any serious real estate or business endeavor, and again, that\u2019s totally fine.<\/p>\n

Wealth building begins and ends with preservation of capital, and for pretty much all of the people like me out there\u2014those with full-time, demanding, but decently paying jobs\u2014the hard truth is that that first step in the process to escape from a 40-year cubicle life has been and always will come down to preservation of capital. Frugality. Savings. Penny pinching. Whatever you want to call it.<\/p>\n

See, when I actually became \u201cserious\u201d about building wealth, I of course realized what everyone else does\u2014that there are three things that all must be applied consistently over the long-term:<\/p>\n