If you’re a millennial that wants to become a millionaire, then you’re clearly going to need to follow a strategy that leads to that path, yet in such rapidly changing times, and an abundance of conflicting advice – it can be hard to get clarity on exactly what you need to do.
Indeed, there’s an abundance of advice aimed at inspiring female entrepreneurs and millennials that wish to break free from the rat race by offering a variety of suggestions with regard to becoming a boss lady, entrepreneur, or setting up a side hustle as a stay at home mom.
Today, the world is full of opportunity, yet it’s also full of risk as times have never been so uncertain. Once upon a time, you could study hard, work hard, and find yourself in a job for life, climbing the corporate ladder with the security of a decent wage, company perks, and a retirement pension you can count on.
The challenge, today, is that this has all changed. We have never had to be more responsible for ourselves in financial terms and without the safety net associated with traditional employment, we are having to become much more dependent on ourselves in the landscape of zero contracts and the gig economy.
In this article, we’re going to look at some of the most pertinent aspects of creating a stable financial future for yourself.
1. MINDSET
The most important and fundamental aspect to your financial future is your mindset. This goes beyond the idea of adopting a positive mindset, and is more about the paradigm in which you view the way you make money.
The majority of people are stuck in an old way of thinking, in that they are still buying into the 9-5 mentality where they trade a unit of time for a particular dollar amount. The challenge with this, however, is that it keeps people trapped in the rat race, as there are only so many hours a week you can work and the amount you can charge for each unit of time is limited by the market and what your employer is willing to pay you.
In this sense, your financial future is not in your control. It doesn’t matter how hard you work in a week, the amount you will be paid will remain the same, unless your pay is contingent on commissions or bonuses.
Similarly, the brain surgeon and the cleaner are both stuck in the same rat race, as if they want to make more money they have to work more hours – which means they will often find themselves living for their job; not having a life outside of their work.
Today, the entrepreneurial culture associated with millennials and the ability to work remotely is seeing a shift – where people are valuing their lifestyle more so than then money they make. Indeed, many people today would prefer to be paid a little less money but to be in a cool environment, or a more flexible working setup, as people are valuing freedom above all else.
Even when it comes to education, people would prefer to study a course such as Masters in data analytics from Laurier that is facilitated online, so they can fit their studies in around their life rather than fitting their life around their studies.
Today, whether people are wanting to study, or make money, they are focused on the freedom that technology facilitates. Indeed, today, with the power of automation and remote working we can live a much more location-independent lifestyle than we were able to just ten years ago.
That said, technology of itself doesn’t create freedom, and some people are so tied to their devices that they have traded being chained to a desk nine-to-five for being chained to a mobile device 24/7.
2. THE SEARCH FOR FREEDOM
Many people are searching for freedom, the idea of being chained to a desk, whether as an employee or even as a business owner does not tick many boxes for people today – as they want to experience the best life has to offer from an experiential perspective; for instance, they would prefer the idea of more holiday time so they can travel the world rather than a huge salary that means they can possess a gigantic flat screen TV.
Today, people are finding they are motivated more by squeezing the most out of life in terms of the experiences of life rather than money.
That said, money is like oxygen, or jet fuel, in that you absolutely require it if you’re going to have the lifestyle you require. If you want to travel, then the jet needs fuel, and in this way you require money.
This is where people are starting to look more into money making strategies that feature passive income as their core component.
3. PASSIVE INCOME
Passive income is an income stream that is passive, meaning you aren’t having to actively exchange your time in return for money – instead, you are leveraging an asset or process to generate an income.
For instance, you could write a book or create an online course and then sell this multiple times, hence leveraging your initial effort, to be rewarded many times over.
The best way to describe this type of passive income is a royalty style income, similar to how a popstar might create a hit song; they invest hundreds of hours into perfecting it, but then, once it’s created, they will get paid in perpetuity – for each time the song gets played on Spotify, on the radio, or used within an advert or film, they get paid.
The same is true of property investing, in that you purchase a house, do it up, and then rent it out at a premium – making profit on the difference between the rent received and the mortgage payment.
There are many small ways to generate passive income, for instance, you could advertise on your blog or even host adverts on your vehicle, but to create the freedom most people are looking for in life, they need to generate an intellectual asset such as a course, book, or blog that provides massive value (and probably takes a long time to create) but once it is created, they can leverage it many times over – using automated marketing tools such as Facebook Ads, or existing platforms like Udemy for courses or Amazon marketing for books.
4. REMOTE WORKING
As an alternative to the up-front work required to generate passive income, and the fact there is a gestation period where you are working on a project but earning nothing from it, the next best thing is to work remotely.
This way, you can live the life you desire whilst having a regular income and the security of a job or regular freelance work – thus you’re able to facilitate the freedom you seek (for instance, travelling the world and working from your laptop on the go) without the need to create a business or asset. It could be as simple as setting yourself up on Freelancer as a web designer, video editor or content writer.
In summary, today, people seem to value freedom much more than money – yet money is an essential fuel to facilitate the freedom you crave. The key point is to look for ways in which you can provide value without having to exchange your time for money. This way, you are in the position to have both the time and money to live the life of freedom you crave.
Bonus Idea: If you’re a budding millennial with an entrepreneurial streak and a bit of capital, but intimidated by starting a business completely on your own, investing in a franchise could be the perfect option for you. The site Franchise Info has lists of lots of different franchises for you to investigate.
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