Financial Freedom 101

When I graduated high school I had a good amount of money in bitcoin before the boom back in 2017. At the time I didn’t know much about the stock market but knew it could make me a lot of money. I read a book called “Rich Dad Poor Dad” a book that focuses on the importance of financial independence and the importance of building wealth from a young age by investing in yourself. This book really changed my mindset and I started to read up a lot on how to develop a separate income by working for my self and not having my own boss. Reading this book is my first personal investment in my self because it taught me many things about money that I never learned and school especially didn’t teach me anything about managing money and creating an asset for my self.

1. Set Weekly Goals

My partner Chopper is a pro at this…”Something Tuna and I pride ourselves on is efficiency.  What we mean by this is how well we use our time. As college athletes and above-average students, Tuna and I need to be organized.  It is easy to forget assignments, lose track of practice, or arrive late to family occasions. Some pro tips we can offer are as follows.  First, something I personally do is create a timeline list. Where every Sunday morning I sit down and go through each class and practice schedule, write down every assignment or location I need to be at on your standard Office Depot Notepad.  This will sit on my desk throughout the week and as I accomplish each bullet point I check them off. Obviously, it is important to realize that your plan will never go as follows. THINGS WILL CHANGE. This is okay, now that you have everything on one piece of paper you can make adjustments and take notes throughout your week.  In fact, I personally have all these sheets dating back to the first week of school back in August and not a single one was ever adjusted to or had assignments added. Someone like Elon Musk references the following example about the importance of time management and how it can put you ahead of others. He says that someone who works 40 hour work weeks in one year compared to someone who works 80 hour work weeks in one year will be able to do twice as much as the other individual”.

-Chopperman

2. Find A Mentor

If you are serious about investing in yourself or your future finding a mentor is one of the most important parts of preparing for a successful future. Find someone to mentor you, in the field you are interested in learning from there mistakes and always respect their opinion even if you don’t agree with them. You will be surprised by how many experts are willing to share their knowledge and past mistakes with you. I have multiple mentors each with their own skillsets to teach me different things about there meanings of life and how to improve each and every day from improving my communication improving my work ethic improving my decision making and also improving my knowledge on investing in the stock market or even investing into myself.

3. Choose Your Friends Wisely

The types of friends you choose to be around will always have a direct effect on your life and your personal image. If you want to be successful you need to have friends who you can rely on and learn from that will support whatever you do and not talk about you behind your back. Good friends allow you to experience life appropriately because you can always be your true self around them. From my personal experience, I have gotten rid of many friends due to them wanting to go down a different path than me, too many people my age just want to drink, party and spend their money foolishly on things to impress others. If you currently have friends who do not comply with your goals, chose to go your separate ways from them, or greatly reduce the amount of time you spend with them.

4. Read or listen to E-books

Reading is one of the best ways to invest in yourself. There are plenty of books out there that could make you more knowledgeable in any field or thing you have interest in. Only three years ago a buddy of mine recommended rich dad poor dad to me and ever since that book I have read or listened to at least 15 books pertaining to personal finance, business, and marketing. Personally I rather listen to E-books but for books involving investment I prefer to get the hard copy because there are pages with certain charts and pictures you would not be able to access through the E-book copy. Never underestimate what reading books could do for you. When it comes to making money I have learned way more by reading books than I ever have in the classroom.

5. Making Connections

Something me and chopper live by is making connections with other people, If its through social media or even in person, if we hear someone talking about something we take interest in we always tend to chyme in and start to build a relationship with them. For me personally, There are many individuals who I have connected with over the years that have brought me great value in life whether it was getting a new job, an interview for a potential job or even an opportunity to make money, connections will always help you build your personal brand for the future. I have friends all over the country just through the internet who I chat with multiple times a week, about business, life, and other personal information. You can learn a lot from someone who lives a completely different life than you, we can’t all be experts in things but when you have the opportunity to gain from their knowledge and share your own you can build on you can experience big improvements within your everyday life.