Financial freedom … can you imagine it? To use the lingo from our last couple of posts, it means freedom from money worries or, even better, freedom to choose how we spend and live.

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Financial freedom is just one piece

We’ve defined bigg success as life on your own terms. There are five elements of bigg success – money, time, growth, work and play. Bigg success comes faster when these five elements work in synergy; that’s part of the bigg idea behind bigg success.

So while financial freedom is a worthy goal, be sure you’re looking at it as part of the bigg picture. What does life on your own terms mean to you? Only you know the answer that’s best for you.

Framing financial freedom

You are the entrepreneur of your own life. As the entrepreneur, you need to understand the two basic financial statements: your Income Statement and Balance Sheet.

The Income Statement shows how much money you brought in the front door and how much money went out the back door. Financial freedom means more income and less costs.

The Balance Sheet shows how much you own (your Assets) and how much you owe (your Liabilities). Financial freedom means more Assets and less Liabilities.

6 ways to define financial freedom

• Debt free

There are variations of this. You may consider yourself free if you don’t carry a credit card balance forward from month to month. Other people want everything paid off except their house. For some, they want no debt period.

You focus on the Liabilities side of the Balance Sheet with this path. You want to minimize what you owe. Better yet, owe nothing.

• Low standard of living

Some people take this to an extreme, but they’re the only ones who have to be happy with it. This is a very simple, yet proven path. Focus on spending less so you’re free to spend the excess money however you want.

Obviously, this path focuses on the Expense side of your Income Statement. “Low” is a relative term; it means low relative to your Income.

• High salary

Conversely, you can focus on making a lot of money. Make a lot more than you spend and you’ll feel free financially.

We called it “salary” but it can be active income from any source – commissions, business ownership and the like. Obviously, we’re on the Income side of the Income Statement here.

• Cash in the bank

If you have an amount equal to three to twelve months of living expenses in the bank, you may feel a sense of financial freedom. It doesn’t have to literally be “in the bank.” For example, you may have the money invested in a money market mutual fund.

This is a Balance Sheet strategy focusing on Assets, specifically Cash and Cash Equivalents.

• Retirement nest egg

Here you get that sense of financial freedom by having enough money stored up to allow you to live comfortably, without working, for the rest of your life. Your focus is on building up the Asset side of your Balance Sheet. Unlike our third definition, this path is about building passive income from these Assets.

• Wealth-creation

For some people, financial freedom means being wealthy enough to buy anything they want. There are a lot of degrees here. “Everything you want” doesn’t have to mean a jet or a yacht, but it can if that’s what you really want!

This is a complex path. You’ll probably need to manage both sides of the Income Statement and the Balance Sheet. You may not try to minimize Liabilities; instead, you’ll focus on having Liabilities that have paid for Assets that make you money.

It’s important to define financial freedom so you can determine your goals. With your goals in mind, you can develop strategies to achieve them. That leads to bigg success!

What does financial freedom mean to you?

Share that with us by leaving a comment below, calling us at 888.455.BIGG (2444) or e-mailing us at bigginfo@biggsuccess.com.

We’re so thankful that you took the time to read our post today!

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Please join us next time as we wrap up this series on freedom. We’ll talk about being a free agent. Until then, here’s to your bigg success!

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Direct link to The Bigg Success Show audio file:
http://media.libsyn.com/media/biggsuccess/00429-070209.mp3

Related posts

Three Levels of Freedom - Part 1

Three Levels of Freedom - Part 2

Three Levels of Freedom - Part 3

(Image in today's post by svilen001)

Then we talked about freedom from dependence on others, addiction to things and limiting thoughts. Now we’re ready to discuss the highest level of freedom: freedom to.

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Freedom to live your life on your own terms

This is what Bigg Success is all about. It’s the freedom to live your life on your own terms.

As we get freedom from, our confidence grows. We conquer our fears one at a time. We start a new dialog with ourselves. We tell ourselves we do deserve better. We tell ourselves we will do better. We stop listening to what other people say or worrying about what they think.

It’s liberating.

Who cares that your neighbor just bought a hot little sports car?

Not you. You have bigg plans and a new car isn’t part of them right now.

Who cares that your college classmate just got a great promotion?

Not you. You have your own bigg dream to pursue.

You’re the entrepreneur of a very important enterprise – your life. You call the shots. Successful entrepreneurs find a way to press on, to endure. You’ll do whatever it takes – as long as it’s legal and ethical – to live your life on your own terms.

Every day, you’re free to give it all you have. And that’s a level of success you can revel in. At the end of the day, you can be at peace with yourself if you’ve given your all that day to move you toward the life you dream of living.

Until tomorrow.

Bigg goal-getters are usually happy, but they’re never content. Be happy today while eagerly anticipating all the bigg things you will accomplish tomorrow.

Freedom to relish in the success of others

You also have the freedom to help other people live their life on their own terms. But there’s a step in between.

As we get beyond our limiting thoughts, as we start to conquer our fears one by one, as we move past the freedom from level, we gain that confidence that is so crucial to bigg success.

The way we think starts to change. We see the potential within us. We come to appreciate our uniqueness.

Small-minded people get jealous of others and their achievements. As a bigg thinker, you welcome the success of others. You applaud it. You feel the freedom to relish in it.

Freedom to help others live their lives on their own terms

Now you’re ready for the highest level of freedom to – freedom to help others live their lives on their own terms. You’re ready find synergies with other people.

You can look for ways to combine your respective strengths while shoring up your shortcomings. You know that by working together, you can accomplish far more than either of you can accomplish by yourselves.

The reward? You both reach bigg success even faster!

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Thank you so much for reading our post today. Please join us next time as we continue this discussion of freedom. We’ll talk about financial freedom. Until then, here’s to your bigg success!

Subscribe to The Bigg Success Show in iTunes. 

Subscribe to the Bigg Success feed.

Direct link to The Bigg Success Show audio file:
http://media.libsyn.com/media/biggsuccess/00428-070109.mp3

Related posts

Three Levels of Freedom - Part 1

Three Levels of Freedom - Part 2

(Image in today's post by svilen001)

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We said “freedom of” are those freedoms we have as a result of living in a free society. It’s something we shouldn’t take for granted because plenty of people aren’t so fortunate. Today we want to move to the second level of freedom: freedom from.

Self-created obstacles

Now let’s move to the second level of freedom – freedom from. As we strive for bigg success, we face many obstacles. In many cases, these obstacles are self-created. Now unfortunately, these self-created obstacles are often tougher to get through than obstacles that fate or whatever else may throw our way.

That’s because these obstacles are internal. So we have to re-program our own minds to get beyond them. And that’s often harder than finding a way to go past an obstacle that was put in our path by some external event.

Freedom from is a massive topic. Today we’ll focus on three categories of dependence:

Dependence on others

When we’re young, we’re dependent on others to take care of us. Then we grow up and get out on our own.

Now we seem to be independent, but in some cases we’re still carrying some dependent behavior with us. For example, we may never outgrow worrying what other people think.

Dependence on things

The most obvious things we can become dependent on are drugs or alcohol. However, we can also become dependent – even addicted – to material possessions, fame, money, and even success. Anything that takes control away from you is an obstacle to your bigg success.

Dependence on limiting thoughts

Limiting thoughts can become a security blanket. It’s the place we go when things don’t work out. We tell ourselves that we don’t deserve any more. That we’ll never have any more. That’s how we explain the world.

So our future becomes intertwined with our past. Because we can’t – or won’t – move beyond these limiting thoughts so we never experience the bigg success we were born to live.

Freedom from: Moving from dependence to independence

Dependence is the opposite of freedom from. We want to move from dependence to independence. Let’s tackle the three categories of dependence one at a time.

• Freedom from dependence on others.

We’re not talking about dependence in the sense that they support you. We’re talking about caring too much about what other people think.

Bigg success is life on your own terms. Many people never truly live their lives on their own terms. But you’re a bigg goal-getter. You will. You must take control away from anyone else that keeps you from reaching your goals. Stop worrying about what they say – go out and be a bigg success. Then see what they say!

• Freedom from dependence on things.

We won’t discuss dependence on drugs or alcohol. That’s for the professionals.

We do want to talk about other things. For example, we’re coming out of a time when many people became so dependent on accumulating the hottest this or the newest that. They became imprisoned by their own spending.

Take control of your life. Freedom from means not being driven by outside forces. It means substantive rather than superficial. It means seeing the end, not just the means. It means knowing what you truly want and going for that instead of worrying what your neighbor has or what your classmate from college just achieved.

• Freedom from dependence on limiting thoughts.

Appreciate how special you are. You are truly one-of-a-kind. There never has been, or ever will be, another person with your unique DNA, experiences and perceptions.

Talk to yourself with respect. We say things to ourselves that we would never say to someone else. Talk to yourself like you’re your best friend. You should be your best friend anyway!

If you’re afraid of doing something, do it afraid. Conquer your fears one day at a time, one fear at a time.

Understand that bigg success comes in baby steps. Change a little at a time so you reach the bigg success you deserve!

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Thank you so much for reading our post today. Please join us next time when we’ll discuss the third level of freedom – freedom to. Until then, here’s to your bigg success.

Subscribe to The Bigg Success Show in iTunes. 

Subscribe to the Bigg Success feed.

Direct link to The Bigg Success Show audio file:
http://media.libsyn.com/media/biggsuccess/00427-063009.mp3

Related posts

Three Levels of Freedom - Part 1

(Image in today's post by svilen001)

Today we’ll start a five-part series on freedom. In the first three posts, we’ll explore three levels of freedom. They are: freedom of, freedom from, and freedom to.

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Freedom of

With this level, we think freedom of expression, freedom of speech, freedom of religion and those sorts of things. If you’re like us, you probably think of these things as rights.

That is if you’re lucky enough to live in a society that guarantees those rights. If you’re reading this post, the odd are that you do live in such a society. We take away two points from this:

If you live in such a country, stop and be grateful.
You may see flaws in the system. You may see the misdoings of public officials. You may adamantly disagree with their decisions.

But, now and then, stop and be thankful that you live in a place where you can express your disagreement, if you choose to do so, without fear for your life. What a wonderful gift it is!

For the most part, societies that guarantee these freedoms do better than societies that don’t.
Isolation doesn’t work. It slows progress. In fact, isolation can actually cause societies to go backwards. We wonder, though, which comes first:

Does this infrastructure need to be in place so these countries develop, or …

Does this infrastructure result from the development?

We suspect the former – development is more likely to occur when this infrastructure is in place. When people feel that basic freedoms exist, they are free to develop things that aren’t likely to be developed in a closed society.

There is a lesson for leaders in this. Don’t just allow your people to express themselves; encourage it. That’s where creativity comes through.

Bigg success often starts with a bad idea. Ideas may seem bad at first hearing, but can evolve into something revolutionary. Such was the case about 233 years ago when a group of people declared their independence. We know the rest of that story!

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Thank you so much for reading our post today. Please join us next time when we’ll discuss the second level of freedom – freedom from. Until then, here’s to your bigg success!

Subscribe to The Bigg Success Show in iTunes. 

Subscribe to the Bigg Success feed.

Direct link to The Bigg Success Show audio file:
http://media.libsyn.com/media/biggsuccess/00426-062909.mp3

Related Posts

Three Levels of Freedom - Part 2

Three Levels of Freedom - Part 3

(Image in today's post by svilen001)

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Let’s start with the phrase itself. Work – life balance. It implies that work isn’t a part of life, doesn’t it?

So is work death?

And how do you figure out this whole balance thing. It seems like you would have to tightly define work and life.

So what is work?

For example, does work mean the time you spend making money? If so, a stay-at-home mom or dad doesn’t work! Yet we all know how hard their job can be.

What about other unpaid work? Are the chores you do at home part of work or part of life?

Here’s another scenario: Imagine you want to go on a once-in-a-lifetime trip. So you take a temporary part-time job to pay for that trip. Is that work or is it part of life since you’re really only taking on the part-time endeavor to pay for something fun?

What if you turn your hobby into a part-time business? You think it’s great; instead of having to pay to do something you enjoy, you get paid to do it. Is that work or life?

Would it make any difference if that part-time business turned into a full-time opportunity? Would you be working at all or would your whole life just be … well, life.

And what is life?

Assuming you work in an office, do you consider the time you spend commuting work or life? Let’s assume that you consider it work. What if you choose to live some distance away from work? That’s definitely a life choice. So is the extra time counted as life or is it still work?

Does sleep count as life? It’s essential for life, but how productive are you at work after a sleepless night?

Even if you don’t get the sleep that’s recommended, it’s still a significant chunk of your day. So when you think about balance, do you just exclude sleep altogether?

What is balance?

Doesn’t balance imply an equal split between work and life? Is that what work – life balance really means? Are you supposed to spend half your time living and half dying (if work is death)?

If it’s not a 50 / 50 split, how can we call it balance? How many people ever achieve an even share of each? Is that even desirable?

Okay, we hear it … you want to know our point. Well, we have three of them:

No lines in the sand

The first one is that work – life balance is not only an outdated concept, we’re not sure it was a great concept in the first place!

Bigg goal-getters don’t draw a line in the sand. Work and life are integrated. They always have been. They always should be.

Work is a part of life. Life is a part of work. It’s best to accept that reality and find ways to make them work (or live) seamlessly together.

It’s a custom blend

Bigg success is life on your own terms. You decide the right mix of personal and professional. It’s your custom blend.

If you’re perfectly happy spending eighty percent of your time on personal activities, have at it. If you love your work and want to spend eighty percent of your time doing it, more power to you.

We’ll just share one caveat about working too much. Research has shown that experts can get too close to their subject and lose some of their creativity. You may not be well-rounded, but at least be a little rounded!

We’re preaching to ourselves in that last paragraph … we needed the reminder!

Look for synergy

Finally, don’t think zero-sum. Don’t accept that there has to be tradeoffs. Work doesn’t have to end so life can begin and vice versa.

If you think there has to tradeoffs, then you’re right. It’s a self-fulfilling prophecy. However, if you think it’s possible (better yet, probable) that you can find a solution that doesn’t require a trade-off, you’ll be more likely to try one.

That’s the bigg idea behind bigg success. There is synergy in the world. Strive to find ways to get your personal and professional lives working for each other instead of against each other. That’s bigg success!

What works for you?

We’d love to hear from you! Leave a comment below, call us at 888.455.BIGG (2444) or e-mail us at bigginfo@biggsuccess.com.

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Thanks so much for reading our little rant today.

Please join us next time when we begin a series of five posts on freedom. Until then, here’s to your bigg success!

Subscribe to The Bigg Success Show in iTunes. 

Subscribe to the Bigg Success feed.

Direct link to The Bigg Success Show audio file:
http://media.libsyn.com/media/biggsuccess/00425-062609.mp3

Related posts

Flipping Work Life Balance

Taking Time Off to Get More Done

Why Work Life Balance Doesn't Work

(Image in today's post by svilen001)