Financial Freedom Book Bundle
Who doesn’t love free stuff?!?!? This week you have a chance to win a bundle of three books. I credit two of the three with putting me on a path to financial freedom and enabling me to retire at age 48. The third book is more of a recent find that I love. All three discuss financial freedom but each in its own way. At the core of each book is the concept of investing in cashflow producing assets so that you free up the need to trade your time for money. When you own your time, you have ultimate flexibility to spend it in whatever way provides the most value for you.
How Do I Win?
All you have to do is answer the question correctly, then enter your email address. Once your email is confirmed (check your spam folder if you don’t see the confirmation email), I will send you an email with your own special link. If you share my book bundle contest, you will receive additional chances to win if your friends sign up through your link!
When you sign up, you will be added to my newsletter. I promise not to spam you and you can unsubscribe at any time. I send emails about once a week with tips about financial freedom, early retirement and reinventing your retirement.
Here Are The 3 Books You Could Win
Book #1 – Your Money Or Your Life
This was the book that started it all. It helped me get a handle on my spending in a way that no budget ever could. I tried budgeting over and over and at best had limited success. Paying myself first helped a great deal. It got me my first start in investing. But this book took things to a whole new level of thinking. It linked the ideas of money and time. Time is the most valuable asset you have because it is limited. When I switched to working towards time freedom I could more clearly see how my spending was keeping me from that goal. That mind shift helped me eliminate a lot of purchases that really weren’t adding value to my life. I was no longer feeling restricted by a budget, but instead I was buying my freedom one piece at a time by choosing to invest instead.
Book #2 – Rich Dad’s Cashflow Quadrant
Rich Dad Poor Dad is the book often quoted by those who pursue financial freedom. While that book is great and has influenced many people, I prefer the Cashflow Quadrant. It gives more detail about why it matters to educate yourself about how money works.
“The main reason people struggle financially is because they have spent years in school but learned nothing about money. The result is that people learn to work for money…..but never learn to have money work for them.” – Robert Kiyosaki
The quadrants are the four basic ways you can earn money. They are:
- Employee
- Self-employed
- Business owner
- Investor
The primary differences between the quadrants are the way each one is taxed and whether or not you can use leverage to build your wealth.
Understanding how our tax system works is also critical. Taxes are a significant drain on your wealth building ability. If you want financial freedom, you must understand at least the basics of the tax system. Earning money via a paycheck is the least efficient ways to grow wealth. Your paycheck carries a heavy tax burden that reduces the amount you have available to invest.
Business and investments both are significantly favored from a tax standpoint. Both can use leverage to compound wealth. Leverage can be applied to both capital and labor. Hiring other people to work in your business gives you the ability to get more done than you could as an individual. Leveraging capital allows you to use other people’s money to build your business.
Buying assets rather than liabilities is the other main focus of the book. We are taught that anything we own is an asset. By Robert Kiyosaki’s definition, it is only an asset if it puts money in your pocket. Buying cashflow producing assets is the road to financial freedom. Once you have these assets producing for you, they can provide the money for your lifestyle expenses. You buy your freedom with cashflow producing assets.
Book #3 – The Thin Green Line – The Money Secrets of The Super Wealthy
This book was a Tim Ferriss recommendation. Tim is the creator of the concept of “lifestyle design” so his financial book recommendation caught my attention. Lifestyle design is about creating the life you want to live then creating the financial means to live that life. Money is never the goal but rather the means to achieve your goal.
At the foundation of this book is the idea that there is a difference between rich and wealthy. It isn’t the amount of money that one has that makes the difference. Rather it is the idea that you are wealthy when your income from assets you own exceeds your spending. Using this definition, a school teacher with a pension that pays more than he spends is wealthy. An investment banker with a high salary and high expenses is rich. There is a thin green line between the two.
There is a tendency to think that a higher salary will be the solution to financial problems. Often times it only compounds the problem. Higher earnings can lead to more lifestyle spending and debt. Spending isn’t the problem if it’s sustainable. If you are dependent on your job to sustain your spending level, you are financially fragile.
So there you have it! My top 3 book recommendations to build your blueprint to financial freedom.
Good luck! I hope you win!
Comments
Share this Post