HOW YOU CAN ACHIEVE FINANCIAL FREEDOM IN 2022

What Financial Freedom Actually Means

Financial freedom means having enough money in the form of cash and investments to do whatever you want. To illustrate in simple terms, it means that you can quit your job to travel the world full-time, focus on your hobbies, or stay at home to watch Netflix.

When can you be said to have attained financial freedom? That would be when you have enough disposable income and investments on hand to pursue the things you’re passionate about, regardless of how much they cost. By having financial freedom, you can make decisions that align with your values and life goals, instead of worrying about how you’ll make your next pay cheques. 

There is no one amount of money that every person should reach for to achieve financial freedom. The amount will vary depending on the individual and their lifestyle goals. Simply put, for one person, financial freedom could mean having one billion naira in savings, and for another, 100 billion naira may not be enough.

Unfortunately, too many people fall far short of financial freedom. Even without occasional financial emergencies, escalating debt due to overspending is a constant burden that keeps them from reaching their goals. When a major crisis—such as a hurricane, an earthquake, or a pandemic—completely disrupts all plans, additional holes in safety nets are revealed.

Ways Of Achieving Financial Freedom

There is no hard-and-fast rule to achieving financial freedom, but certain practices are guaranteed to set you on the right path, and make you stand out from the rest of the pack. It takes deliberate steps to move from one financial level to another. Here are some time-proven tips to follow if you want to dine at the table of the wealthy:

1. Understand your current financial state: You can’t achieve financial freedom without knowing your starting point. Looking at how much debt you have, how much savings you don’t have, and how much money you need can be a depressing reality. But this is a valuable step in the right direction. Compile a list of all your debts, and in doing so don’t forget to include any money you may have borrowed from friends or family members over the years. Pay off your smallest debt first, then use the money you would have put toward that debt to start paying down the next one. Once you’ve gotten out of debt and developed a budget, you’ll have more money each month and more peace of mind.

2. Consider money from an optimistic perspective: Money is a necessity like food or water. It helps you buy the things you need and live the life you want. To experience financial freedom, you’re going to need to look at money as a tool to help you achieve your dreams, fuel your energy, and live a stress-free life you can enjoy. This is because if you view money negatively, you’ll subconsciously sabotage your chances of making it and keeping it.

3. Create a short-term savings plan: Achieving financial freedom will not happen overnight, and you need to have a backup plan for the expensive surprises life can throw at you. Once you’ve gotten out of debt, you will have more money to budget each month and to put into savings. Once you’ve created an emergency fund that can account for everything – from a sudden income loss to major medical issues – you can then make that extra income work for you by way of investment. Having this emergency fund is practical and it’s necessary for your mental well-being. When you know you have a financial cushion, you can take more risks.

4. Negotiate prices of goods and services more often: A good number of consumers are usually hesitant to negotiate for goods and services, because they’re afraid that it makes them seem cheap. Conquer this fear and you could save thousands each year. Small businesses tend to be open to negotiation, so buying in bulk or positioning yourself as a regular customer can open the door to good discounts with certain businesses.

5. Create additional sources of income: If you’re serious about financial freedom, you’ve got to sacrifice some hours of sleep, and put in the work. Your 9-to-5 job could make you comfortable but it will definitely not lead you to wealth, and in that case, you need to step it up and look for money outside your current job.

6. Live below your means: Mastering a frugal lifestyle means developing a mindset focused on living a good life with less, and it’s easier than you think. In fact, before rising to affluence, many wealthy individuals developed the habit of living below their means.

This isn’t a challenge to adopt a minimalist lifestyle. It simply means learning to distinguish between the things you need and the things you want—and then making small adjustments that drive big gains for your financial health.

How Paga Assists You In Managing Your Finances

In climbing up the financial ladder and working your way to financial freedom, it is important that you actively seek out investment opportunities and also manage your finances. Many people rack their brains trying to figure out how best to do this, but thanks to Paga, Nigeria’s leading payment solutions provider, this process has now been demystified. It’s as easy as pouring water into a cup.

One way that Paga has helped to provide financial guidance for its customers is via the creation of the wealth.ng marketplace. Wealth.ng is an investment marketplace that makes it easy for you to invest money in treasury bills, stocks, mutual funds, and real estate. With Wealth.ng, you can grow wealth by investing in any of the treasury bills, stocks and other securities listed on the platform. You can monitor your investments in real time and see how much interest accrues to you when your investment matures. Wealth.ng holds your hand through the investment process and guides your hand each step of the way. You have total control over your investments, and you can make changes to your personal profile settings at any time.

It is also important that you keep track of your spending, and this is one of the services provided by Paga. One way the platform does this is by allowing you to set up recurring payments. This means that you can set up your account in a manner that it will be debited a specific amount at a specified time of the month for a particular service. A recurring payment is designed to take away the burden of initiating a regular payment while ensuring you do not miss the payment. It is simple to set up. To do this:

–          Log into your Paga account

–          Select “recurring payments” from the list of services

–          Create a new recurring payment

–          Select the service you want to create a recurring payment for

–          Fill out the details of the recipient/beneficiary

–          Set up the schedule and fill all required fields

–          Review the details and confirm the transaction.

Opening a Paga account is pretty easy.

To get started, click here to download the Paga app on your device, then click on ‘Sign Up’, and follow the instructions from there.