Letter To Self
Dear Self,
Freedom is a big deal. Great people in our country have fought and died for it. And financial freedom is no exception. If you start early and 1) aggressively save, 2) use the power of compound interest and 3) exercise some budget restraint, you can achieve complete financial freedom and transition into retirement at an early age. What does this mean? You will have the freedom to choose if and where you work. You will have freedom from worry about money and the anxiety of debt. You will have freedom to chase your dreams and spend time in those things you are passionate about. Sound good? I think so too. If you are seriously interested in financial freedom, listen carefully. There are just a couple simple actions you need to take right away. They require immediate commitment and action. Still interested? Then read on…
Begin With The End In Mind
The first step toward financial freedom is to know your “why”. Actually, it is to know your “what” and your “why”. The what we already discussed. The what is to retire from full time employment at an early age and to experience financial freedom. To go a little further, let’s be more specific. The what is to retire by age 55 and have the freedom to pursue the passions of your heart, namely: tropical beach centered living, travel and generously giving back in my community. That brings us to the why. The why is that financial freedom allows me to contribute the most to my family and to society in general. I am more valuable to my family, community and God if I am financially free to live and serve others without the constraints of a full time job or full time financial worries. Let’s get started.
Save And Invest From The Start
You’re 22 years old and fresh out of college, making a good salary in a growing industry. Your first step is to save aggressively. You just came out of four years of living frugally on the college campus, so before you expand your cost of living with the new salary, dedicate yourself to save 30% of your salary from the first paycheck on. That’s right, 30% right off the top. Have the savings automatically deducted from your paycheck before you see it in your checking account. That way you don’t even miss it, because you never had it to spend in the first place. Where will the savings go? Three places to start: 1) 10% of your paycheck will go into an emergency fund until it gets up to one month’s of expenses. 2) 15% will go into your retirement account, offered by your employer, and includes a matching program. 3) The balance, 5%, goes into a new investment account. Once the emergency fund totals the equivalent of one month’s of expenses (enough for a single guy with a stable job, for now), that 10% of your paycheck will be added to the investment account (now totaling 15%). It’s that simple. Do this and your on your way to financial freedom…but not there yet.
Keep It Simple And Watch It Grow
You were taught compound interest and investment principles in college, but go back and learn them again. What will you learn? That compound interest of savings that is invested in low cost, equity based investments develop rapid growth of wealth. Let’s go over the basics in some detail. The emergency fund goes into a checking or savings account and does not earn any investment return, but acts as self-insurance. This is called “sleep at night” money because it helps you sleep at night knowing that you can cover most of the unexpected little costs that come up in every day life. The emergency fund is the single biggest deterrent to mounting credit card debt. In turn, credit card debt is the single biggest threat against financial freedom, so we want to avoid consumer debt at all costs.
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The retirement account goes into the company 401K program as a pre-tax investment which lowers your taxable income and is eligible for the company matching program. That means the 15% of your income that you put aside from each paycheck automatically gets another 5% (50% match up to 10% of your income) added to it and then gets invested in low risk equity based mutual funds. This retirement savings, match and investment gets done automatically, each paycheck, before you see your paycheck.
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Last, your regular investment savings goes straight into a low cost equity index fund. Specifically, an S&P 500 Index Fund, which over the course of history has produced a 10% return annually. It’s that simple. Save money, invest money, let compound interest do it’s thing. What’s the key? Have the money automatically taken out of your paycheck so you don’t see it or be tempted to spend it before it goes to your investments.
Embrace The Budget
To ensure you stay disciplined in your regular savings, embrace living on a budget. What does that mean? Develop a spending plan and learn to live (and spend) by it. Take the 70% of your paycheck that is left after savings is invested and allocate the money for living expenses. It’s pretty straight forward but you would be surprised how many people do not have a budget and lose track of their spending, only to end up broke or in debt. Here are the big budget items and targets for spending:
Housing (house payment/rent, utilities, insurance, taxes, HOA): 30% of net monthly pay
Auto (Car payments, gas, repairs, insurance, etc): 15% of net monthly pay
Food (Groceries, toiletries, eating out): 15% of net monthly pay
Debt Payment (No debt payment, no credit card balances, start off right!)
Generosity (Tithe, donations, etc): 10%
Entertainment (Fun, travel, vacations, pets, hobbies): 10%
Living Expenses (Clothes, gifts, household stuff, medical): 10%
Misc. 10%
Make a budget, live by that budget and get comfortable living well below your means by learning how to find low cost or free entertainment, food, transportation and household needs. You will not miss anything important by keeping your cost of living down. It’s that simple: Save, invest, live on a budget…and oh yeah, compound interest!
Enjoy The Ride
I’ll say it again, it’s that simple: starting right out of college, save 30% of your paycheck, invest in an emergency fund, a retirement fund and low cost equity investments, and live below your means using a simple budget. Those are the primary vehicles to financial freedom. Because, over 33 years, from age 22 to 55, using the power of compound interest, those investments turn into something much bigger than the sum of the savings made over that time. Let’s take a look at the math with a couple assumptions:
Starting pay right out of college: $50,000 annually.
Assume 3% annual salary increases, pay by age 55 is $128,000 annually
Total savings over 33 years at 30% of income (Age 22 to age 55): $1,030,550 including company match
Investment value at age 55, given the following returns: emergency fund 0%, retirement fund 6.5%, investment account 10%: $2,991,000
That much money, almost $3M, produces $120,000 a year in annual income at age 55 (4% rule) or $10,000/month, which supports just about any lifestyle. More importantly, this income, allows for full financial freedom! And this does not include other income sources such as social security. In addition, by starting your saving and living on a budget early, and investing regularly, the process to achieve financial freedom was simple and easy. Compound interest does the heavy lifting. It turns your million dollars of savings over 30 years and into three million.
Start early, be disciplined, trust investments over time and the power of compound interest. It’s that easy!
Sincerely, The older you.
youcanbefree123 