How To Never Worry About Money Again With One Simple Strategy

By Doug Bennett with special guest David Coleman

If you’re thinking about retiring early, how confident are you that you’re on the right track to financial security? 

What if you had assets that work for you – generating income consistently –  instead of you working for them?

David Coleman, entrepreneur, YouTuber, and self-described introvert, has had a brilliant journey to success. After years of adopting one simple strategy, he’s now in a position where his residual income covers all his bills without having to talk to people  – every introvert’s dream!

In this blog, we’ll take a closer look at this strategy and how you can get through life without ever having to worry about money.

The work optional lifestyle

In some of my previous blogs, I’ve talked about my Work Optional Lifestyle Financial Plan®, where we collate all of your financial information so that you know when you can afford to stop working and still maintain a desirable lifestyle. 

Essentially, there are three types of people. 

First, there are people who do not have enough money. This category of people often need to seek the help of a financial planner early in their lives to change their thought processes and wealth strategy. Otherwise, they might get to the end of their lives and realise that they still don’t have enough money.

The second category is made up of people who do have enough money, but they don’t actually realise what they have. They’ve spent all their life creating assets, and they’re in the accumulation stage, not realising that the de-accumulation stage of their life has come into being. These are my favourite types of people because I can change their lives if I can demonstrate to them that their cash flow is covered by the assets they’ve already created.

Finally, there are people who have too much money. As financial planners, we can help them give it away comfortably, plan for their beneficiaries, or invest in profitable ventures. This way, they can relax knowing that their future is sorted. 

If you fall into the first category or you aren’t sure where you stand, it’s time to adopt a new strategy. In David’s case, he adopted what most people might call an extreme way of saving and investing his money to acquire income-generating assets.

Financial Independence, Retire Early

David: “The process I adopted was the FIRE (Financial Independence, Retire Early) movement. The main point of FIRE is to get your outgoing expenses down to the point where they’re significantly less than your income, regardless of what that is. If you can pull this off, you’re financially independent. You don’t have to go to work anymore. This philosophy was a major turning point for me. I cut down my outgoings to almost next to nothing, sold my fancy cars and my house, and cancelled my Netflix subscription. After I sold my business, I had a nice lump of cash so I started looking at investing in things. I invested in a profitable crypto startup, and for the first year after I left my business, I was earning 20 per cent interest on that money, which was a great help. Today, that interest pays the bills every month.”

I like the idea of acquiring income-generating assets. To achieve financial freedom and retire early, you want to start today to invest in things that will generate cash flow for you in the future.

As David points out, when you get to this point, work becomes optional rather than compulsory, and that’s when you know you’ve hit the jackpot.

The equation for happiness

What I love about David’s story is that he had a sudden moment of realisation before he decided to shake things up. A moment where he redefined what he wanted and started working towards it. It’s this realisation that I aim to stir up in all of my clients.

David: “At my previous job, I was doing pretty well. I had managed to save quite a bit of money, and I had a nice house, a nice car and everything I thought I needed. But I took a look at my life and thought to myself: ‘Are you happy?’ Mo Gawdat, former chief business officer for Google X, created his equation for happiness. According to him, ‘Happiness is equal to or greater than the events of your life, minus your expectation of how life should be.’ Hearing this gave me the direction I needed to stop bumbling around and start creating the life I wanted.”

From my experience, having this clarity can be the kick you need to move in the right direction. You may realise that you’re nowhere near becoming financially secure, and that can inspire you to start making all the right moves. You can then focus on building a stash of income-generating assets and lowering your present expenses so you can achieve and maintain the future lifestyle you want. 

You may also find out that you’ve reached the point where work actually is optional, which means you can relax a little and enjoy life more. 

Whatever the case may be, it’s important to look at where you are now vs where you want to be in the next couple of years.

If you’d like some help with this so you can start planning towards a work optional life, grab a free copy of my guide to Work Optional Lifestyle Financial Planning® on my website.