Ann Marosy

Achieving financial freedom is not as difficult as you imagine - however, there are 3 absolute things you must DO and 3 absolute things you must AVOID to achieve it. If you write these down, paste them somewhere you can see everyday and then follow through, financial freedom is yours to have and enjoy!

Financial Crisis is characterised by a problematic financial position where all you seem to be doing is going from one financial problem to the next. Finances are tough. You are barely surviving from payday to payday. There is a strong sense of scarcity; there never seems to be enough and there doesn't seem to be any way out.

I would like to introduce you to the real meaning of budgeting. Forget about the concept of restriction and restraint often associated with household budgets and start thinking about your finances in the same way that good businesses do.

The City of New York's Report concluded that Heath Ledger's cause of death was the result of acute intoxication by the lethal combination of prescription drugs such as narcotic analgesics and sleeping aids. However, the medical community have ignored the real underlying prescription drug class that often leads to habitual drug dependency with dangerous lethal consequences.

The truth is: savings will give you more money in the long run. If you want to become wealthy you must start thinking long-term not short-term. Generally, most people waste more than 10% of their income every week on things they don't really need. By eliminating wastage and extravagance from our lives, we can find that extra 10% to save.

I recall the wisdom of a friend who once said, "Educate the mother and you educate the family". He was speaking of higher values at the time, but those words ring ominously in my mind now. Was the Rolling Stones' 1960s hit "Mother's Little Helper" a warning we didn't heed?

There is a simple, effective formula that everyone can apply to easily manage their finances. I call this the 40%-30%-20%-10% rule. This formula is used to measure your expenditure and cash outflows. You divide your expenditure into four categories and calculate the total of each category as a percentage of your net (after tax) income.

In order to invest wisely, you need to have a suitable investment plan that will ensure the appropriate amount of growth for you. Your investments will also need to be safe and easy to manage.

One of the greatest mistakes you can make in managing money is not knowing where your money is going. About 90% of people who come to see me do not know exactly how they spend their money. Some may have small notebooks where they scrawl their monthly accounts but when they start to put everything down on paper, they are always surprised, if not shocked, to see the real state of their finances.