Introduction

Imagine being able to live life on your terms. Imagine being able to spend as much time as you want with the people you love, doing the things that give you joy and satisfaction. Imagine living completely debt-free. Sound like something you’d enjoy? You can! But first, you have to address the thing that might be holding you back.

Financial problems are one of the most common struggles in America today. According to one survey, over 75 percent of the population lives paycheck to paycheck, and 71 percent of all workers say they are currently in debt.1

One of the primary reasons people struggle financially is that incomes do not run parallel with lifestyles. We spend more than we make. We use lines of credit to buy things we can’t afford. We use credit cards to get things right now, even if we don’t actually have the money in the bank to pay for them. We live in a generation of consumerism and debt because we don’t know the meaning of delayed gratification. When people buy things they cannot afford, they are really spending their future income—money they haven’t even made yet. Then they have to stay at jobs they don’t enjoy to pay for all the stuff they bought on credit. This is the debt trap so many Americans find themselves in.

Does this sound familiar? Are bills piling up with no end in sight? Are you drowning in debt and feeling stuck in a downward spiral? I have great news: you can make choices right now to change your current and future financial situation. Money is a tool that gives you options, but you have to make good choices. I’m going to show you how!

Before you can make changes, however, you have to want change. In other words, the pain of staying the same has to be greater than the pain of changing. The plan I offer in this book requires work. It’s simple, but it’s not easy. You have to be willing to address the real issue, which is you! It’s easier to blame other things or people, but that is a victim mentality that will never get you what you want. If you’re going to make changes, you have to take ownership of your past actions and the debt you have created. Only then can you take steps toward becoming financially free.

A Simple Approach to Financial Freedom

Getting control of your spending and achieving financial freedom (or financial independence, as some call it) requires a plan and a strategy. Hope is not a plan. You can hope that things will change, but hope will not make it happen. You need a plan.

I’ll say it again: my approach to achieving financial freedom is simple, but it isn’t easy. You will have to make hard choices and change your behavior.

So what does this approach involve?

• Before you can change your life, you need to change your mind. We’ll talk about the difference between an abundance and scarcity mindset and the importance of feeding your mind on abundance and positivity.
• Next, I’ll help you discover your big why: why do you want to get out of debt and be financially free? This chapter includes several questionnaires to help you determine your purpose. You will need to hang on to your big why when you get tired of delayed gratification and are tempted to splurge on something you really don’t need or you really can’t afford.
• After you’ve got your mindset straight and you know why you’re making these changes, you need to get practical. I’ll help you create a net worth sheet so you can see exactly where you are on your financial journey. Then I’ll share some tips for creating a budget to help control your spending, save money, and get out of debt. Finally, we’ll figure out your financial freedom number—the amount you need to earn through passive income streams so you can live out your big why.
• The next few chapters discuss ways to fund your financial freedom number through passive income and small business ownership. We’ll discuss real estate investments, dividend investments, and various side hustles. You have so many options for funding your freedom number, and the choice is yours!

Financial freedom is different for everyone. Some people need $2,000 a month in passive income to live the life they want, and others need $10,000 a month. Some people want the freedom to quit the job they hate and work in their passion. Others want the freedom to travel or spend time with family. Maybe you would love to volunteer. Financial freedom is a mindset and lifestyle, and the great news is that you decide what you want and how you’re going to get there.

Kentucky Girl Becomes a Millionaire

At one point in my life, I was right where you are. I was in debt, and I needed to make some changes.

I’m from a rural town in Kentucky. I was raised by two loving parents who always reminded me that I could be or do anything I put my mind to. Mom and Dad were both schoolteachers and they valued college education. They were not so keen when their youngest daughter announced she wasn’t going to college. I wanted something different. I had dreams of being a self-employed hairstylist like my grandmother.

My family in 1970. I’m sitting on the floor in front of my mom.

My family in 2019. From the left, Milt, me, Mom, and Laura.

After graduation, when all my friends were heading off to college, I moved to Texas, the land of big hair. It was the perfect place for me to build my hair-cutting business. I worked two jobs while I attended Texas Barber College. At the ripe old age of twenty, I purchased a barber shop in the Northtown Mall in Dallas, Texas. My dad loaned me money for the down payment, and the barber who was retiring agreed to finance the rest.

I became a barber because I wanted to cut men’s hair, but I quickly learned there was more money doing women’s hair, so I started doing hair color, perms, and highlights. I worked seven days a week for the first few years. I went to the mall with my own big hair to solicit business. I offered people free haircuts, knowing that if I could get them in my chair, I would have clients for life. I earned a decent living on five-dollar haircuts and twenty-five-dollar perms (remember, this was the late ’80s when Julia Roberts’s spiral perm in Pretty Woman was all the rage!), and because I was so frugal, I saved at least half the money I brought home.

Then I got the news: my dad’s lymphoma had returned and he was dying. My world turned upside-down. I started flying from Texas to Kentucky every weekend to help my mom take care of my dad. This meant I wasn’t working on Friday and Saturday, my busiest days at the salon, and I was also spending a lot of money on plane tickets and other expenses. During a one-year period, I racked up over $10,000 in debt.

My dad passed away at just fifty-two years old, and it was such a huge loss. He was the pillar of our family and one of the most positive humans I knew. He never met a stranger and was loved by many. I can’t talk about him today without crying. I know they say time heals all wounds, but it’s been over thirty years, and the wound in my heart has never healed. I miss my daddy.

During the time my dad was sick, a friend introduced me to Rick Oliver, a policeman and avid pool player. It was love at first sight. When I pulled up to the pool hall with my friend, I could see inside through the big windows. “Just tell me he’s the one in the red shirt shooting pool,” I told my friend.

“That’s him.”

“I’m going to marry that guy.” And I did, one year and three months later.

After my dad died, I started working to get out of debt. My whole life, I had watched my mom and dad struggle with finances. They both worked two jobs to make sure my brother, sister, and I had everything we wanted (but didn’t necessarily need). What we really wanted, however, was to spend time with them. I knew that I did not want to work that hard and miss out on time with loved ones. So, over the next year, I focused on paying down my credit card debt and saving like crazy. In 1989, Rick and I were able to buy our first home.

A few years later, I had an aha moment: we could buy houses, rent them out, and build an income source. At that point, we had saved enough money to buy our first rental property for $18,000 cash, and by charging $400 a month for rent, we earned our money back in less than four years.

Around the same time, I read a book that was a real game changer. Your Money or Your Life by Vicki Robin and Joe Dominguez opened my eyes to what money could do for us if we were purposeful with it instead of wasteful. I started understanding the concept of trading time for money. I also started considering what we could do to earn passive income without trading time for money.

At the advice of one of my clients, I opened a retirement account and started contributing to it every month. Rick and I also became more purposeful in saving money to buy rental properties and generate a bigger income stream. Our first goal was to earn $3,000 a month through passive income to replace Rick’s salary so he could quit. By the time I was...