Introduction
The alternative to working forever

Imagine if money wasn't an issue and you could spend your time doing what you love most. How would your lifestyle change? How would it stay the same? What would you do differently?

For many people, being able to create a life that includes the freedom to choose how to spend their time is the ultimate goal.

Unfortunately, we are told that a 9–5 job is the only path to success (or means to survival) and the thought of quitting your job seems impossible. But it's not.

You want to invest.

You want to get ahead.

You've realised you don't want to work forever.

But in a world filled with Buy Now, Pay Later; inflation; decreasing purchasing power; and housing prices forever on the rise, it can seem impossible.

In this book, we will teach you how to build wealth by increasing your income, investing to make money passively and build the lifestyle that you want.

Now, this isn't a get-rich-quick scheme, as it takes time and effort to work towards a work-optional lifestyle, but ultimately the goal is to create a life where you don't have to work forever in a job you hate.

It's not about doing nothing (because that would be pretty boring). It's about working towards a life filled with freedom and choice to do the things that you love and that add value. Plus, if you're doing what you love and are also getting paid for it, it's not considered work, right? At least that's what we think!

What does having a more meaningful life mean?

For each person, building a meaningful life will look a little different. For some, it's travelling the world. For others, it's spending time with their family. Someone else may want to explore their passion.

Ultimately, it comes down to having the freedom and opportunity to choose what to focus your time on. Isn't that what we all want?

When we have to work, we have to abide by the constraints of our job — in other words, when we work, how much we work and what we work on. For those who are passionate about their jobs, that's great. But for those who want to enjoy their passion and be able to pick and choose how to spend their time, there is an alternative. Even if you're passionate about your job, would you work fulltime if you didn't have to? Or would you switch to part-time work to enjoy more time with family, travelling, working out more or doing something else you're passionate about?

With the advent of COVID-19, so many of us realised that we want a more balanced life: the ability to work from home, have more free time and reduce unnecessary commuting.

By having a better balance, we can also prioritise our health and our loved ones. It's a win–win.

But how do we get there?

Financial freedom

One of the best ways to build a life you love is to ensure you have the financial security to do so. That way, you don't have to depend on a pay cheque. This is often referred to as ‘financial freedom’: providing yourself with the freedom of choice.

Financial freedom is achieved through creating passive income — that is, income that you don't have to trade your time for. Investing is one of the most passive ways to make money in that your money makes money, and you don't have to do much in return. When you invest, you become a shareholder of a company. As that company grows in value, you are able to receive some income in the form of dividends and/or through the increase in value of your shares. We will get into the logistics of investing later, but the main point to note is that investing is the key to financial freedom — and it's easier to get started than you might think.

But to invest, you first need to have at least some money. The two ways to get your hands on money are to decrease your expenses and/or to increase your income. The quicker you get hold of some extra money, the quicker you can invest, the more time you have for your investments to grow and the quicker you can fund your life and live a life you love.

Future-proof your life

When it comes to investing, you need to consider risk. And not only the risk of investing but also the huge risk to your financial security if you don't invest. In fact, if you keep money under your mattress or in an interest-free transaction account at your bank, it loses value over time due to inflation. That's why it's important to future-proof your life and try to make your money grow so that you have future opportunities and financial security.

Of course, we all want to live our life now. We want to enjoy life, experience adventures, and buy the things that align with our values and with what we feel we deserve. However, we also don't want to make it harder for our future selves. By creating financial security for your future self, you may be able to walk away from situations that aren't ideal for you — a stressful job, an abusive relationship — or pivot to a new career or lifestyle, all because your past self has invested in your future self.

What's more, you don't have to pick one or the other. You can enjoy life now, while still planning for your future. There may be some sacrifices in the short term, but we aren't going to tell you to completely cut back on all of your fun spending and live like a hermit (unless you want to!).

The great thing about investing is that it gives you income regardless of whether you're working or not. It provides you with an alternative source of money without you having to put effort into it (minus the initial money you invest — often referred to as ‘capital’). The goal with long-term investing isn't to strike it rich with some quick trading. Instead, it can be to get an average return on the stock market, to beat inflation or just to keep up with inflation so that your money doesn't lose value the way it does when it's in the bank. If you're in Australia, this is what's happening with the money in your super fund: how much it grows each year depends on the investments you choose and how the market performs.

Plus, having additional sources of income allows you to reduce your risk in case something were to happen with your main source of income. At least you'd have some money coming in! In fact, most multi-millionaires have at least seven sources of income. How many do you have or wish to have?

All of this provides freedom and choices in the shorter term, if needed. While your goal might be something like having $1 000 000 by age 55, this doesn't mean you can't access money along the way if your plans and goals change.

The sweet spot

Mark Twain is quoted as saying, ‘Find a job you enjoy doing, and you will never have to work a day in your life’. That's the dream, isn't it? To get paid to do the things you love.

Similarly, the Japanese concept of Ikigai is one that focuses on ‘your reason for being’ and how you can merge what you love, what you are good at, what the world needs and what you can get paid for. It's kind of the sweet spot in life.

It feeds into the idea that if you can find that sweet spot, your life will feel fulfilled (see figure A).

Figure A: the sweet spot in life

So how do you find that sweet spot? Some people are able to easily and quickly recognise it. Others may need to have some financial security behind them to enable them to take risks, which is why investing and building wealth are a large part of living a passionate life.

Financial independence (FI)

The financial independence (FI) movement focuses on living frugally while investing aggressively in order to buy more time and be able to retire early. The idea is that if you invest early and regularly, your money will compound and grow over time, providing you with passive income. That way, you can forgo working and have an alternative income stream — effectively retiring early (if that's your thing). If time is money, then having more money means you have the freedom to choose how to spend your time because you don't have to worry about making money.

What the financial independence (FI) movement did for us