How financially-free-people became
financially-free: Secrets of FFF people

Want to know how financially-free-people reached their financial-independence, how long it took them to do it?
Want to learn the secrets of financially-free-people and what make them tick?

Here are some financially-free folks who are willing to share their story on how they reached their financial-freedom.
They also share some valuable tips on how to become financially-free.
Allow yourself to be inspired, set your own financial-freedom-fortune goals and go for it!

How I got to travel for one full year!

How I got to travel in Asia for one full year
I had a personal coach who helped me out with my career because I was not entirely happy with how my career was going. During that period I made a career move which worked out well for me.

While having this coach I also decided I wanted to travel in Asia for about one year.
I was anxious about this because I just found myself a good job that I enjoyed.
I went back and forth on this travel thing for awhile.Finally I decided I deserve to be free and see people, places, temples, palaces, nature and enjoy culture and beauty in Asia.
So I set goals to do make this trip happen and made a plan. I also needed a way to pay for it.

My coach challenged my goals! He also questioned my plan to leave my job.Instead I could also request a sabbatical leave of work. It is somewhat unusual and I was not sure I would get it, but it turned out to be doable!

Next my coach stretched me out of my comfort zone to save about 40 to 50% of my income for about 2 years to become financial-free for this trip.
This way I reached my goal in 2 years instead of 3 years and could easily afford traveling for a whole year without getting into debt.
And I would have a job to return to when I got back from Asia.My best friend who joined me on this trip for about 6 months sold off his apartment and quit his job.
He did not care about financial-independence, but I'm one of those lucky financially-free-people!

Can’t tell you how wonderful my friend and I felt when we took off to Thailand; Thailand being the first stop of our trip in Asia with more fantastic places to follow! It was an awesome year!

What makes me tick
I definitely need to be one of those financially-free-people and I feel I deserve to be free and enjoy life to the fullest!
When I work, I give it my all. When I play, I play hard.

Tips on how to become one of those financially-free-people for one full year!
Brutally saving money for a couple of years, does the trick to become financially free for a full year.
I was lucky not to have any debt, my college tuition being paid off in full. But saving 50% of my income was hard on my lifestyle. In the end it was OK.
A lot of things are really only niceties.

I wrote down all my expenses to find out where my money went.
Next I cut back on all things I was able to cut back on. Forget your cappuccino but go out for lunch. The next month, I cut back on going out for lunch as well.

Stop smoking, alcohol, candy and snacks. Cut back on soda’s. It’s better for your health anyway!
Be resourceful and creative when getting people gifts or going on outings without becoming a total freeloader.
I asked myself if I needed a car. Because I was leaving for one year, it was fine to sell off my car one year before leaving the country. That saved me a lot of money.

The last but not the least great tip to save money: stay out of trouble ha ha ha !

How I became financially-free

How I became financially-free
While being in college I already got a job offer to work for a consultancy firm. Never got time to think about what I wanted or to plan my career.
I graduated, I was young, eager and they trained me well. In about 3 or 4 years I was offered a lead position which I could not refuse.
In another 3 years I was promoted to a president position.

I was making great money and an even better bonus!
The number of my company shares increased tremendously.
Shares based on the company’s profits. Profits me and my team earned for a large part.

This way I was able to save money because me and my wife both worked long hours and had virtually no time to spend our money!

This financial situation went on for maybe 15 years or so. We also bought a nice house in an excellent neighborhood.

As an investment I decided to buy more company shares using a loan which I paid back with bonus money. It turned out to be a great investment, because I strongly believed in my work and the company.
I loved my job and the consultancy business was booming!

After being with this company for 17 years I left with a nice golden parachute.
The lawyers took almost 20% of this, but it was still good money. Along with the company shares which were made payable to me, I guess I joint the club of the financially-free-people and became independent.

Next I started my own consultancy company and did well. I again enjoyed my work thoroughly and was able to have it my way. I worked 3 days a week only because I wanted extra time to study and read books.

What makes me tick
Like I said before, I never planned anything; not my career, my job or how to exit the company I worked for.
I don’t like to manage money, be overly money conscious and leave that financial management business to others. I never bought stock market shares except the ones of the company I worked for.
At a certain point I did think about retirement and how to be able to keep up the lifestyle.
So I did make arrangements for my retirement to maintain financial-freedom.

What makes me tick? I like a good fight, am resourceful and very resilient. I like dynamics and variety. I have a big mouth and can’t shut up, but that delivers in the line of work I was in!
I look at things as a game and I enjoy playing a game to win!

I also love big, bigger and more!
Never a dull moment for me!

Money was never my main drive.
I’m not that money conscious. Of course I understood money to be the reward and an indicator of success. Money also stands for acknowledgement. Thus I claimed to have my shares and be part of the action! I worked hard and the money came along with my success.

Tips on how to become financially-free
I never planned to be one of those financially-free-people, but I always did desire to be free and decide how my life is going to be.
It does not make sense to me when somebody is overly money-conscious and just want to be rich and have a lot of money. That is rather shallow in terms of creating or offering something of great value to others.
My family did not leave me any riches.
I earned everything I have.

My tip would be to do something that you love and become excellent at it. Or better: be the best in your field!

Let me emphasize this because it is key: absolutely do what you love and thoroughly enjoy.

Play, it’s all an exciting game!
Passion is very important.
Just let your passion explode!

Don’t worry about money; money and the goodies will come along as your passion grows bigger and bigger.
Just be passionate about your life and work, go for it and be open to grab those golden opportunities and to receive the goodies!

Also a tip that works: save at least 10% of your income, build up your assets.
While building assets and your net worth, have a modest lifestyle, don’t squander away your income on unnecessary luxuries.
For example I do not necessarily enjoy traveling much. Give me a good book and a good chair and I’m as happy as can be.
In the meantime like other financially-free-people, I let money work for me!

How I reached financial-independence
in just 5 years!

How I became financially-free
About 10 years ago I wondered why I was still having financial-problems, why I was still worrying about money issues. I kept questioning myself on this.
Wasn’t I a smart enough guy?
Was my job somehow not paying enough?
Wasn’t I working hard enough?
The answer was simple: I did not have any training in how to handle money well!
I had a job, worked hard and got a decent salary, but did not manage my money and finances.

So at that point I became a student of financial-independence.
I started looking for people who were successful and financially-free-people.
Initially I thought people had to be very rich or be a millionaire to have this financial-independence.
But this was not entirely right: being financially-free also depends on your lifestyle.

I talked to a lot of successful, rich and and financially-free-people and one thing stood out to me: rich and money-conscious people handle money very differently from poor and money-problem prone people!

Financially-free people work because they want to, not because they have to work to pay their bills and debts.
Financially-free folks let money work for them instead the other way around!
Totally different situation. How do they do it?
It is not just having assets or your rich parents legacy to begin with.
It all starts with a good money management system. And the right money-conscious attitude!

Next I started reading books on a variety of people and financial topics.
Robert Kiyosaki is one of my favorite authors.
Napoleon Hill’s Think and Grow Rich is a great classic which I read and reread and reread. Of course reading up on Donald Trump, Warren Buffet, Oprah Winfrey and the likes, can’t hurt and is a lot of fun.

Went to seminars, asked questions, talked to people and learnt a lot.
Personal development is also very important to be able to make the necessary changes.

While still working my day time job, I started my own company.
Of course my money management system was in place right from the start and I stuck to it rigorously.
I did not let it slack for a minute! I also worked on getting the right money-conscious attitudes.

It all paid off because in 5 years I was financially-free.
I quit my day time job and in fact I could stop working all together if I wanted to.
But I enjoy working and now I conduct seminars on financial-independence to help other people with their money issues.

What makes me tick
I need a good challenge, need to have a worthwhile goal and to win. This brings out the best in me.
I also like to learn new exciting things, things that provoke my mind and call for action.
Starting my own company was at first definitely out of my league. Quitting my job was another milestone.
What drives me is that financial-freedom is very important to me. It’s my first priority!

Tips on how to become financially-free!
• Question yourself when you are not totally happy with your finances or anything else in your life. Keep asking yourself provoking and deep penetrating questions to get to what is important and true to you

• Next learn all you can and move forward. Read good books, go to seminars and workshops

• Get to meet financially-free-people
• Set a goal
• Take risks in a smart way
• Be money-conscious and pick one financial management system and stick to it

• Improve your attitudes to match your goal of becoming financially-free

• Be prepared to work 2 jobs if that is what it takes!
• Know how to save money and save 10% of your monthly income. Stick to it!

• If takes 2 years to reach financial-independence, great. But keep at it even if it takes 10 years!

• Know what really drives you and gain strength from this.

Got to know what you want!

As a young child I turned out to be dyslectic.
With trouble I made in through high school and decided not to go to school anymore.
I knew I was done with school.

My parents were very displeased with me dropping out. They told me I was headstrong. They said I did not know it better, in fact it was stupid to drop out of school.
I let them talk and did not care. No going back to school for me.

While I still was in school I kept seeing designs in my head.
After the school years ended, I started making blueprints based on the designs I kept seeing.

Not long after this blueprinting started, I met with an engineer and together we started producing rudders, blades and propeller shafts.

Finding the best material to actually produce these designs was exciting.
Getting the first designs produced was a thrill to me!

Before we knew it, we were selling these products.
Designing, producing, finding materials and customers became my single focus for many years.

We were very successful and this is the way we both became multimillionaires and ofcourse were financially-free-people.
Not bad for somebody who did not finish school nor went through higher education, would you say!
I don’t know how long it took to become millionaires and financially-free-people. Maybe 7 or 10 years, hard to say.

Money was not important to me. That is, I needed money to get the designs in production.
Blueprinting and getting the designs in production was and still is my passion.

What makes me tick
Following my own vision and disregarding whatever others may be saying, works best for me.
I focused on my designs and all the rest was of no importance to me.

Tips on how to become financially-free!
Follow your own vision.
Keep your eyes on your goal and keep at it till you achieve it.
Be strong willed.
Nothing wrong with that!

Know what you want. Know your passion.
Respect your passion, that’s all.