Hosted by Randy Luebke

This is the inaugural episode of “Financial Independence Now”, and it is a “must-listen”.  In this episode, Randy Luebke discusses the keys to achieving financial independence, something he calls Retirement 2.0.  You see, retirement today is very different than it was for your parents or grandparents.  Their retirement plan, or Retirement 1.0, generally meant they would work for one company their entire life. Then, once they stopped working, they were done working altogether.

The problem with the Retirement 1.0 model is that most people would work until they couldn’t and, as a result, they would put off doing many of the things that they enjoyed, including spending time with those they cared about most.  This concept is called delayed gratification and, while this strategy does have many benefits, the biggest downside is that none of us know how many years are ahead of us, and what a shame to put off living the life you dream of for decades only to learn that you really don’t have as much time as you hoped ahead of you.

Today’s retirement, Retirement 2.0, is about beginning to live the life you dream of, NOW.  It’s about doing more of the things you really enjoy and spending more time with those your care about most, today.  Randy is not advocating financial irresponsibility.  On the contrary, he insists you live within your means today and forever.  What he advocates is achieving Financial Independence, “When the assets you have, provide the income you need, to live the life you want, and work, is no longer a requirement, it’s an option”.

Randy explains that with financial independence, you will still utilize delayed gratification, however, the goal is no longer about working for a living and then retiring to begin living your life.  Instead, it’s about working to achieve financial independence as quickly as possible.  You see, most people, work to earn money to buy things.  Wealthy people work to buy things that make money.  Those “things” are assets, like businesses or income property or annuities and pensions.  This is a shift in the retirement paradigm.  A shift to beginning to live the life you want today, by acquiring the assets you need to provide the income you need to live the life you want, a less stressful and more fulfilling life.

Topics Discussed: 

• The definition of financial independence
• The benefits of achieving financial independence
• The five steps to achieve financial independence

Links Mentioned:
– lifetimeparadigm.com

Don’t forget to tell your podcast streaming host, iTunes, or whomever, that you enjoyed what you heard and valued the information we shared.  Please, give us your 5-Star rating to help us to grow our audience so we can connect with and help more and more people every day.

Also, remember to visit our website LifetimeParadigm.com. There you will find links to our past podcast episodes, webinars, and educational articles.  All are 100% free and available to you 24/7.  You will also find notices of our upcoming events both live and online.

Finally, be sure to subscribe to our newsletters which are stuffed with great ideas on how to: save and invest, reduce the taxes you pay, protect yourself from lawsuits, and, of course, information on more ways to become Financially Independent.

Listen to the Preview Below

Transcript

When do you want start living the life you dream of? A less stressful and a more fulfilling life? How about now? Welcome to the Financial Independence Now Podcast. Financial independence. When the assets you have provide the income you need to live the life you want and work is no longer a requirement, it’s an option. Hi, my name is Randy Luebke and I am the president and founder of Lifetime Paradigm, a financial consulting, planning and advisory firm, and of course, the creator and host of this podcast, Financial Independence Now. I always begin my podcast by saying congratulations to you, our listeners, for making the decision to invest your time today. And we promise to make this investment into you every time you listen in. 

Well, this is the first episode of what I hope will become a never ending series of podcasts, Financial Independence Now. You know, the purpose of this podcast is to educate you, to inspire you, and hopefully most importantly, help you to take action, to do the things you need to do to improve your life. We’re going to be providing you with ongoing small and bite-sized valuable information and strategies that are going make a difference. And we hope that these strategies are going be the types of strategies that are timeless. So if you’re listening to this podcast today, or 10 years from today, you’ll get value out of the time you spend with us. If you want more timely information, we’d encourage you to go to our website, www.lifetimeparadigm.com, and there you’ll find all the recordings of our past podcasts, as well as future events that are coming up, wealth of information, and it’s all there as a resource for you, and it’s all 100% free.

So this first episode, I thought since this is called Financial Independence Now, it would be good to define what we mean by financial independence. I like to think of financial independence as retirement 2.0. Retirement 1.0 went like this, you went to work, you retired, and then you died. Not a good strategy. Here’s the new way you’re going work until you achieve your financial independence. And then you’re going to begin to live the life you dream of, one with less stress and one with a lot more fulfillment. Now, throughout this podcast, I’m going refer to things I call Randy-isms. Now, some of these things I created on my own and some of these things I know I got from other people, but this is your first Randy-ism. Most people work to make money to buy things. Wealthy people work to buy things that make money. And the choice is yours again, financial independence.

When the assets you have provide the income you need to live the life you want, and, work is no longer a requirement, it’s an option. And by the way, you don’t have to wait till you’re 65 years old. You can do this at any age, and you can do it at any income. Here’s an insider tip. All you got to have is enough assets to produce the income you need to provide the money you need to cover all your expenses. It’s really that simple. I know it’s oversimplified, but it’s true. By the way, in the order to get the financial independence, your income has to exceed your expenses, right? That allows you the money you need to be able to buy these assets or save and invest to provide you that financial independence. All we’re going do once we achieve financial independence is change the source of our income from the work that you provide to having your assets do the work for you.

And by the way, this is not an all or nothing deal. It’s a transition. You know, I have many clients older than 60 years old, and they tell me, Randy, you know what? I feel like I can’t retire. Here’s another insider tip. It’s okay to work after 60. It really is just work less, do work that you like, do what you care about. Again, going to a financial independence, getting there. This is a process. It’s not something you do all at one time. And I’m going to give you the five steps to financial independence. Here we go.

Number one, really simple. Spend less than you make. I know, I know it sounds so silly, but it’s true. You got to spend less when you make so that you have excess money that you can save and invest for your future. Number two, don’t work to buy things. This is number three. Work to buy things that make money. Do what wealthy people do. Number four, once your assets provide the income you need to live the life you want, you’re done. But here’s number five, keep on working. Keep working. It’s good for you because you can work, because you can, not because you have to, because you want to work because it improves your life, not that it takes from it.

So in summary, financial independence, again, when the assets you have provides the income you need to live the life you want and work is no longer a requirement, it’s an option. It’s going to allow you to spend more time doing the things you like with the people you care about most, and it’s going to provide you with a less stressful and a more fulfilling life. So that’s it for today. We trust that you learned something from today’s podcast.

Equally important. In fact, maybe even more important, we hope that you will do something with the information you have learned. Remember, life’s a journey and not a destination. Enjoy the trip along the way. Take a look at your life today from a new point of view, a new paradigm, a paradigm where you are living, the life you dream of starting right now. We look forward to your joining us on our next episode of Financial Independence Now. And in the meantime, please tell your podcast streaming host, iTunes or whomever you choose to listen to our podcast through, tell them that you enjoyed what you heard and you valued the information we shared. Give us your five star rating to help us grow our audience so we can connect with more people and help them every day. Also, remember to visit our website, lifetime paradigm.com. There you’ll find links to our past podcast episodes, webinars, and educational materials, all 100% free and available to you 24 7. You’ll also find notices of our upcoming events, both live and over the internet. And finally, be sure to subscribe to our newsletters, which are full of great information, ideas on how to save and invest to reduce the taxes you pay to protect you from lawsuits, and of course, even more ways to become financially independent. Well, that’s it for today. This is your host, Randy Luebke, signing off.

SERVICES WE OFFER RELATED TO THIS TOPIC

The information contained in this post is for general use and educational purposes only.  However, we do offer specific services to our clients to help them implement the strategies mentioned above.  For specific information and to determine if these services may be a good fit for you, please select any of the services listed below.