Slavery has been abolished in many societies but modern slavery still exist. We are all slaves without realising it. If you borrow money to finance your house or your lifestyle, you are a slave to your employer and/or your debtor. You might think you have a choice but reality will tell you otherwise.

I didn’t think about it this way until I realize why financial freedom is so attractive to me. The reason is simple: I didn’t want to be a slave! In fact, none of you do but because of debts and mortgages and all sorts of nasty spending habits,  many of us have no choice but to relinquish a big part of our waking hours to your employer or debt holders.

To achieve early retirement, we need to learn how to pay for our financial freedom first, before paying for anything else. This is the most valuable thing that money can buy. Forget about cars, luxury items, housing etc. Our time is the most precious and by achieving financial freedom, we become true masters of this valuable resource.

How to achieve financial freedom

Here is my 4 step simple retirement plan:

• Every month, save 50% or more if you can.
• If you can’t save more than 50%, time to start breaking your bad spending habits
• Put the saving in an instrument that can give you 4% to 5% returns.
• Do this repeatedly for every month until the income you receive from your returns cover your monthly living expenses. If you have minimal spending, this shouldn’t take you more than 10 years.

Congratulations, you will have paid for your financial freedom and achieve early retirement.

Pay yourself first

The important thing about the above the plan is that you need to pay yourself first. Buying things excessively is paying other people first. Why would you want to do that? Maybe you have been brainwashed by advertisements and social pressure into thinking these other stuff are important. It is NOT!

If you don’t pay yourself first, nobody will do it for you.  By saving hard and using that money to generate a continuous income, we can be freed from modern slavery to pursue the things that really excite us.