Studies have found that your financial situation is likely to reflect those of the people in your inner circle. The ones who you are closest to, have the most contact with, and who generally share similar values and opinions to you.

If you are looking to become a multimillionaire, the chances are that if your bestie are all on a wage of $60K a year, they may not be able to offer you suggestions on how to reach this goal. Not because they are incapable, not intelligent enough, not hard working enough. In fact the opposite is probably true.

They may not have the skillset, toolkit, or knowledge base to know how to get from $60K a year to complete financial freedom… otherwise, wouldn’t they have done it already?

So I’m ditching my friends?

Not so much. It’s more about making a conscious decision to select where you spend your time, what kind of information you are taking in, and who you are able to role model. Why go through life making mistakes and trying something new each time until you work it out, when you could simply have a conversation with someone who is already where you want to be.

If you don’t know anyone personally, you can read the books of people who have already succeeded financially. You can join online communities of investors. You can subscribe to get updates on property trends, investment tips etc.

The take home message

The most common theme that you will notice when looking into achieving financial freedom is not a ridiculously high hourly wage. It’s having no wage at all, that is – you no longer earn your income based on the number of hours you work.

Financial freedom is all about setting things up so that the endgame is that you earn a passive income with minimal input from you. You can do this through building up a business, building up a stock portfolio, or obviously property is another example.

Property as a passive income

One of the benefits of property is that as long as you do your research in the first place and purchase a sensible property, it is a relatively low risk investment. To take it one step further, you want to consider all of your options and choose a property which offers the maximum returns possible for your initial investment.

For example, if you bought a duplex instead of a single residence, you could generate two rental income streams. More bang for your buck right? You could take this one step further and consider a dual key home which offers the same two rental income streams but with lower ongoing costs (and hence higher overall returns).

Whatever strategy you choose, you want to be sure that you feel comfortable with the level of risk involved. For example, if you are a little risk adverse, trading cryptocurrency may not be up your alley whereas property might be. Just make sure that no matter which tactic you employ, you do your homework so that you are able to make an informed decision in your best interest long term.