Live your own Life

How to do what you want every day and retire young enough to enjoy life

De: Ian Wilding

Narrado por: Virtual Voice

Would you know if you were living next door to a millionaire? The chances are that they would drive an unremarkable car, go on holiday to the same places as you and in most other respects look and act just like everyone else. They might appear a little more relaxed, a little less stressed and they may smile more often. Nobody would single them out as being any different to anybody else. The truth is that nowadays being a millionaire isn’t as hard as it used to be. Most major currencies devalued enormously over the latter half of the twentieth century and it has been said light-heartedly that you now need at least three million pounds to have a millionaire’s lifestyle. Despite the bar being lower, most people in the UK are further away than ever from joining the jet set. Average household savings have hit record lows and levels of indebtedness have gone through the roof. It’s possible and not at all uncommon for families living in neighbouring houses, driving similar cars and with comparable lifestyles, to be managing their lives very differently beneath the surface. An indebted family without savings or private pensions could owe more for their car, TV and furniture than those assets are now worth, and they may be dependent on keeping their jobs in order to survive from one week to the next. The family next door may be debt free with savings, from which they receive investment income each month on top of their salaries. They could have made provision for early retirement and have a war chest on which they can draw in order to cope with household emergencies, or to pay the bills if they were unlucky enough to be made redundant. It’s no wonder that one family might sleep a little better than the other, have much less stress and smile a bit more. We make many of our decisions emotionally and we often don’t put up much of a fight before parting with our cash. We may justify our decisions using skewed logic, but the reality is that we make most decisions using a primitive part of our brains and unwittingly place ourselves at the mercy of powerful commercial organisations using tried and tested psychological techniques to separate us from our money. We then have plenty of time to regret unwanted purchases or unwise financial decisions, but little chance of getting any of our money back. However, this doesn’t have to be the case. By having a plan, understanding how we make financial decisions, knowing where our money goes and also being aware of the array of psychological weaponry ranged against us, it’s possible to create a little daylight between our earnings and our spending. Add an understanding of the nature of investments and the powerful effect of compounding interest and you could force open that slither of daylight and turn the surplus cash into a sum that could change your future. A few years down the road, you may not be driving a better car or choosing to go on better holidays, but you’ll probably be sleeping better at night, looking forward to a comfortable early retirement and maybe smiling a little more than your neighbours. The main purpose of this book is to open the reader’s mind to different ways of thinking and to encourage them to take charge of their own life rather than following the herd. Of course, there are many occasions when the herd has got it right, but it’s useful to be able to spot when people are being pushed in a direction that is not necessarily in their best interest. I don’t pretend to know what path your life will take or what the world will look like in ten years time, but I can say with some certainty that no one will take a greater interest in the health, wealth and wellbeing of you and your family, than yourself. Live your own Life is about taking charge of your life, doing what is in the best interest of you and your loved ones, achieving financial security and finding the time and freedom to squeeze as much happiness out of life as is possible.