Financial freedom is a goal for every generation, whether you are a millennial approaching your midlife savings goals, or a baby boomer hoping your retirement nest egg is enough. Not only do you need to start investing with your future in mind, but your investment portfolio should also include a long-term return on the money you’ve put into you.
Ramit Sethi , a financial expert in the art of getting rich, knows not only the value of a dollar — but also of listening to the advice of your family.
Sethi came from educationally focused immigrant parents who supported and encouraged his dream of getting into Stanford. However, college preparation classes were expensive — hundreds of dollars that he worried his family didn’t have — yet when he brought this up to his mother she simply replied, “We’ll find a way to pay for it.”
That simple belief and fortitudinous approach laid the foundation for Sethi that many financial advisors couldn’t even touch. When you are starting off your career with high-interest student loans anchored to your bank account, it can be overwhelming, but Sethi never forgot the lessons his family taught him and how he built his financial freedom from that foundation .
Lesson 1: ‘If It’s Important? You’ll Find the Money’
What you create as your financial safety net will include more than just money and assets, as the first step often takes spending. This is not to say that you should plow through your emergency fund on a whim or rack up a large amount of credit card debt. But if something is important enough to invest in, then you can find a way to make small sacrifices now in order for a big payout in the future.
Sethi said, “For my parents, when it came to education, they’d find the money. I took the class. They drove me 30 minutes each way, on weekdays, so I could learn SAT prep … and it helped! Having an instructor who could work with me and help walk me through the examples was priceless. It was also nice to be around other students who had the same struggles. I realized I wasn’t alone.”
You are your biggest asset, and what you invest in your education or other training will only increase your earning potential and wealth down the line. Sethi learned this from his family.
He said, “It starts with mentally acknowledging the need for help, and then finding a way to make it happen. My mom and dad didn’t have the money or the time — but they found a way. And for me, the security of knowing I could get personalized help from the instructor … wow.
Sethi added, “But there’s another thing I didn’t mention. For a long time, I didn’t tell anybody I took that Kaplan class. It was just something I didn’t want to talk about. I wanted success to seem effortless.”
Lesson 3: ‘We Have Weird Beliefs About Easy Success’
This third lesson came from Sethi shaking off his need to appear nonplussed by the hard work and efforts he put into not only his education but also his success. He said, “People tend to believe we shouldn’t try too hard to succeed … It takes work to be good, and a lot of work to be great. The people who tell you about how easy and effortless it is to make a million dollars in passive income are lying. Worse, they’re delusional.”
Sethi went on to say, “I know how much work it takes to build a multi-million dollar business. I’ve done it. Success, whether it’s your finances, your business, or your relationships, takes an investment of time. And sometimes, money. Success is almost never effortless. I wish I could tell 15-year-old Ramit that there’s no shame in asking for help. In tapping into the expertise of someone who knows more than you do, in accelerating your growth.”
Final Take To GO
The bottom line is there typically isn’t just one thing you do to achieve financial freedom. The process is multifaceted, and growing your wealth can be equal parts nature and nurture.
So take that first step today, or as Sethi would advise, “When it comes to achieving your ‘Rich Life,’ it can be easy to get stuck in dream mode, thinking about ‘someday,’ while staying stuck in the day-to-day challenges. Today, I’d like you to write down one thing you could do to move toward your ‘Rich Life.'”
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