Five Million Easy Steps to Financial Independence

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This is one of those good news–bad news situations. Which do you want to hear first? Before we get to that, I was in the bookstore yesterday and noticed that there are a lot of “X steps to Financial Freedom” type books. Here are a few that I saw:

• 9 Steps to Financial Freedom: Practical and Spiritual Steps So You Can Stop Worrying; Revised and Updated Version
• 50 Simple Steps You Can Take To Improve Your Personal Finances: How to Spend Less, Save More, and Make the Most of What You Have
• The 7-Step System to Building a $1,000,000 Network Marketing Dynasty: How to Achieve Financial Independence through Network Marketing
• 50 Simple Steps You Can Take to Disaster-Proof Your Finances: How to Plan Ahead to Protect Yourself and Your Loved Ones and Survive Any Crisis

This got me to thinking about all these steps, and that brings us back to the good news-bad news situation I mentioned at the start. Here it is–The good news is that all these steps can be boiled down to one thing. The bad news is that we must repeat that step everyday for the rest of our lives–and it ain’t easy, at least it’s not for me. What’s the step? Living below our means.

OK, I know this isn’t rocket science, but for all the things we talk about when it comes to finances (and they are all important), living below our means is the one thing we must do and do consistently if each day we want to move towards Financial Independence. Of course, how we live below our means (spending less, knowing what we spend, keeping a balance sheet, or the dreaded B-word–no, I was thinking of Budget) and what we do with the excess money (investing) are all important topics. But it all starts with living below our means day in and day out.

Published or updated March 22, 2012.