Phase 5 (of 5) To Financial Independence
The final phase, maintaining your independence!
--
Welcome to the final stage of your journey to financial independence! By this point, you are successfully living within your means, have built a safety net, and are building passive income to live your intentional financial lifestyle. So, what is there left to do?
The Journey Is Not Over
In fact, the journey to financial independence never ends.
Phase 5 is all about maintaining your independence. Luckily, the hard work is over now that you have reached the final phase. But that does not mean that the work is done.
Now that you have achieved financial independence, you must create a system of sanity checks or reviews to ensure that you are staying on the right path. Or, frankly, to become aware whenever you begin to deviate from your independent lifestyle.
What Checks Do You Need?
Now that you have put in the hard work to achieve everything you need to be financially independent, it is time to set up checks that you are maintaining that incredible level of success.
Following the previous phases, set up checks to ensure that you are still:
· Living within your means,
· Maintaining an adequate safety net, and
· Generating passive income.
Do Not Worry About Being Perfect
Phase 5 involves a general sanity check, not a meticulous review of your daily life.
It is ok to temporarily fail one of these checks:
· Large one-time purchases (e.g., down payment on a home), may prevent you from living within your means for a month or two,
· You may need to dig into your safety net for a surprise medical expense, or
· Poor market conditions could drive a passive loss rather than passive income.
What is important is (1) that you do everything you can to not fail multiple sanity checks at one time, and (2) you do your best to ensure that any failures are temporary.
