Financial Freedom Book Summary

Book Summary

15 min

Brief Summary

Financial freedom is possible. You don’t have to wait till 70 to live your life. If you plan to retire that late, you’d probably give the most valuable years to your employer. Don’t waste your time. Start early, it has its own advantages. Plan your journey to Financial Independence and get there as fast as possible.

About the Author

Grant Sabatier is the founder of the Financial Freedom Summit and the creator of Millennial Money. Grant guides on topics such as investing, personal finance, entrepreneurship and mindfulness. It is his mission to make financial freedom accessible to all. He has featured in Money Magazine, the New York Times, Washington Post and other publications.

Topics

Money & Investments

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Key Insights

Financial freedom is possible. It’s when you wouldn’t ‘need’ to work in order to make money.

Find your Financial Independence Number. Define what your net-worth should be and move towards it.

Optimize your full-time job.

Start saving by increasing your savings rate every month.

Launch a profitable side-hustle.

Learn how to invest intelligently.

Fast-track your financial independence and retire early.

Grant Sabatier shares his journey to Financial Independence through this book. He illustrates how his net worth increased from 2.26 dollars to over 1 million in five years. Grant gives you actionable insights that you can use to attain true ‘financial freedom’. He defines the term as a state where you can do what you want with your life without ‘needing’ to work for money.

It is a motivational and inspiring story of how Grant overcame the setbacks of losing a job, envisioning a future he wanted, and how he worked towards it. If you are looking to retire early and be the king of your time, then this book is a great guide.

Define your Financial Independence Number.

The first step to achieving financial freedom is to define how much money you need. In other words, it is the amount of net worth you need to become financially free. This number, called the Financial Independence Number, would differ from person to person and from time to time. You should not set this in stone. It is advisable to revisit this number once a year. You may alter the figure depending on various factors such as a higher target or a personal change. Remember, the idea is to reach a state where you don’t feel ‘burdened’ to make money.

Your Financial Independence Number will serve as your goal. Begin by understanding where you are at the moment in relation to this number. Therefore, all your actions would be directed at reaching this number.

Increase your savings every month.

If you set yourself to saving only 10% of your income each month, for the rest of your life, then you’d never be able to achieve financial freedom. Grant says that you must keep increasing your savings percentage. Ideally, save 1% more than the last month. So, if you are saving 10% in January, aim to save 11% or more in February and so on. Do this for at least the first year on your journey to Financial Independence. Never lose sight of your unique Financial Independence Number.

Once you start saving, you would reconsider all your expenses too. The idea is not to reduce all your expenses but to cut back in order to bring you closer to your number. Keep in mind that recurring expenses are the worst. They slow you down. If you can cancel those unnecessary monthly subscriptions then you’d reach your goal faster. When making such decisions, ask yourself if it is a ‘want’ or a ‘need’. If it is a ‘want’ then you should definitely consider giving it up, for the time being, to reach your number faster.

In parallel to saving, increase your primary career income. If you are...