Qué es la libertad financiera
Nowadays many people look back and realize they are not happy either professionally or economically with their lives. Many of them would love to work in something that fulfills them, others would like to find another job in which they could earn more money or simply find a job,… The vast majority longs for financial freedom.
A year and a half ago I discovered a magic book that talked clearly and plainly about this subject: how to get financial freedom. It was recommended to me and, without expectations, I brought it with me during a long flight from Madrid to Bogota. To my astonishment, while everybody was sleeping in the plane I couldn’t get my nose off “El código del dinero” by Raimon Samsó.
In this post I talk about what I consider the highest contribution that this book makes to people that wish to progress personally and professionally in life. The path that leads to financial freedom is exciting and at the same time vertiginous. I find myself immersed in this journey, and without a doubt, it’s worthwhile.
To begin with, let’s make it clear what financial freedom is.
Financial freedom is not worrying from where my next Euro is going to come from or keep depending on selling my time at work.
Towards finding financial freedom we must be aware that there are two types of income: Active Income and Passive Income.
- Active Income: you need to be there to generate it. It can be earned when you sell your hours, your time.
- Passive Income is not generated directly from the job you do, but from a source of income of your own enterprise. At the beginning launching your own business demands some work but then this business is actually working for you (dedicating it, obviously, certain doses of affection, but not 100% of your time).
Roles de generación de ingresos: empleado, autoempleado o emprendedor
Depending on which role you are currently playing, you’ll have one kind of income or another. There are 3 roles that are also extremely associated to the mentality, values and attitudes of those who hold them, in relation to the way of generating incomes. These roles are NOT excluding but they can be combined.
- Employee or salaried
- Self-employed or freelancer
- Entrepreneur
The employee or salaried sells his time to an enterprise in return for a salary. No job can make you rich or free. Hence the Spanish expression “Nobody gets rich working”. Given that the employee’s time is limited, the capacity to increase his income is equally limited. Having a job is good to gain experience, make contacts and get started. But there are better roles…
The self-employed or freelancers depend on nobody but themselves, but that zeal of independence can turn them into slaves of their own business. If the self-employed stop working, they stop earning. If they had their own business, that wouldn’t happen… The self-employed should be aware that this role is an intermediate and provisional step to the third role.
A freelancer would have to work from the very first day to stop being one. He should work from the first day to create a system that sets him free from working in his own enterprise. In most cases this doesn’t happen and freelancers end up being victims of an excess of work that exhausts them. The greatest risk for a freelancer is to keep thinking as an employee, executing tasks and selling his time to a third person and not thinking as an entrepreneur and creating amazing projects and products.
The entrepreneur is the only one who will reach financial freedom. People in this role create enterprises, products or systems that are able to provide freedom and to generate passive income that doesn’t require their full-time presence to work and generate income.
Cómo dejar de preocuparte de tu siguiente salario o ingreso
To be free and rich it is necessary to create a multiple variable income system: active and passive. This way, if an income source dries out, you’ve got others that keep working.
Changing your job does not change your economy, changing your role does. Obviously, success is not guaranteed in none of the roles and it is possible to succeed and to fail in any of them.
Skipping to new roles, the first thing we need to do is to come in contact with our talent. What can we offer to others that they can appreciate? Which attribute or ability do I have (or can I develop) to be offered to others as a service to be paid for?
The self-employed or freelance role is gaining great importance in times like these when many people can’t find a job because the market can’t provide them with one. In those cases, more than ever, we will have to invent our own workstation.
We are in the age of information, knowledge, globalization and the Internet. It is no longer indispensable to have a sponsor or a great loan behind us to launch a new business idea. In this “new order”, people with knowledge, talent and determination will do fine. At this moment a very clear law is applied: to earn more, you have to learn more.
Something to be highly considered is that, each role carries mentalities, values and different objectives. The employee searches for better jobs and security, the freelancer searches for independence and the entrepreneur searches for opportunities. Therefore, evolving from one role to another is not only a job change. It’s a life change.
Are you ready for the change? If you are, this could be your year.