Financial Freedom for the Rest of Your Life If You Follow 3 Simple Rules

Is it possible that just 3 simple rules will give you financial freedom for the rest of your life? You better believe it. It worked for me, it worked for millions and millions of others, and it will work for you. If you follow these three simple rules, you will have financial freedom, probably sooner than you ever thought possible, and the only thing that can screw it up is… You.
I know this because I screwed it up for a long time before I finally got it right. However, once I finally got it right, my success sky-rocketed. I spent the first 29 years of my life spinning my wheels, financially, and then I started following my 3 simple rules, and I became financially free in the next ten years. Many have done it faster than that. Some take a little longer. Here they are:
Rule #1 – Live below your means.
Rule #2 – Save and invest the difference.
Rule #3 – Continuously improve on rules #1 and #2.
A friend recently reminded me of a saying I have heard many times before – financial freedom and/or getting rich is simple, but it isn’t easy!
It can be started on a shoestring, but it will never happen if you don’t start. Reality is not “when I have more money, I will start to manage it”. Reality is, “when I start to manage my money, I will have more… money to manage!” So many people complain that they don’t have enough to make ends meet, much less to get ahead. That is not a money problem; that is a philosophy problem. No matter how little or how much money someone with that mindset makes, they will never be financially free. Back when I was building financial freedom on about $20-30K/year, I knew a guy that was making over $100K/year. When he lost his executive job, he started working two weeks later as a salesman, not because he wanted to, but because he had to. He had to support his lifestyle (the corvette, the dinners out, the huge house payments, electric bills, and the rest of the doodads). He was living paycheck to paycheck. You see, he just never quite made enough money to get ahead. Probably the next pay raise would have put him over the top (not!).
Jim Rohn said “Shortly after I met my mentor, he asked me ‘Mr. Rohn, how much money have you saved and invested in the past six years?’ Jim answered, ‘none’. His mentor then asked, “Who sold you on that plan?” Let me take it a little further. How many books have you read in the past 90 days that might help improve your financial future? How many courses have you taken? How many financially successful people have you reached out to and asked, “Can I buy you dinner and pick your brain a little while we eat?” T. Harv Eker says you have your own financial plan in place right now. His question is, “how’s that working for you so far?” If you don’t have the financial success you want in life, are you doing the things that need to be done to change that? I am sure you have heard that the definition of insanity is doing the same things over and over again, always expecting different results. If you don’t change something, nothing much will change!
My path to financial freedom started when I finally figured out that I didn’t know everything, and that I could get help. I started reading material that improved my financial IQ. I asked questions of co-workers that were successfully investing in real estate. I stopped using my plan, which had zero success in 29 years, and I started learning from people that showed me how to become financially free in 10 years. I attribute most of my success to my three simple rules, and I challenge anyone to follow those rules, and prove to me that you can follow them and not succeed financially.
It is simple, but it isn’t easy. It requires discipline. It requires finding people that have the success you want, and learning from them. In my first 29 years, I learned financial success from dozens of people, none of whom had any financial success themselves. I needed to stop and ask directions from somebody that knew the way. When I started to learn from people who already had what I wanted, everything changed. It is simple, but it isn’t easy. You might have to get up earlier and go to bed later. I did. You might have to work harder and smarter. I did. You might have to figure out ways to add value to other people’s lives. I did. You might have to recognize that you are 100% responsible for your success, or lack thereof. That is what, after 29 years, finally, I did. You have heard me say again and again, 'you can have your excuses, or you can have your dreams, but you can’t have both'. Ten years ago, in August 1998, I stopped making excuses, and I started working on my dreams. I hope you have done the same, and if you haven’t yet, I hope I can motivate you to do it now. If you haven’t already started, when will today be the right time?
I will tell you what I see in 90% of the people that talk to me about wanting financial success, and it is easy to recognize because I had it for 29 years. I see people that want financial freedom, but they don’t want to have to learn more, work harder, do more, or become more than they are right now. Oh yeah, and they want it by next Thursday. Furthermore, if they can’t have it on their terms, then they just know it isn’t possible - anyone that has financial success must have been lucky, or took advantage of other people (just ask 'em).
Personally, I spent ten years busting my butt doing a full time job to the best of my ability, plus gave my evenings to my family, then worked until 1-2am doing real estate, paperwork, reading, goal-setting, visualizing, etc. I got up and 5am and was back at it again. I gave up 'me' time and did repairs, managed property, hunted for needle-in-a-haystack great deals. Then, occassionally someone learns how successful I have been, and tells me, "You sure were lucky!" If I feel up to it I enlighten them as to the luck I had, but usually I just smile and nod in agreement.
Let me tell you, millions of people have become self-made millionaires, and many have overcome hurdles bigger than you or I ever dreamed of. Some have overcome physical handicaps. Many came to this country without a penny to their names, and couldn’t even speak our language. In one way, shape, form, or another, whether they realized it or not, almost without fail they followed my three simple rules:
Rule #1 – Live below your means.
Rule #2 – Save and invest the difference.
Rule #3 – Continuously improve on rules #1 and #2.
It is simple, but it isn’t easy!
If my blog inspires you in some way, please refer your friends and family members to check it out, and, as my friend Tim Harris is fond of saying, “keep on keeping on”! May your parents have rich children, and your children have rich parents!
In closing this blog, anyone who wants to be notified whenever I post a new blog can get on my e-mail list. E-mail reinvestorsfl@aol.com and ask to be added to “The Lund Letters”. It is free, you can be removed from my list at any time, and I will never sell or trade your e-mail address or any other information.

A coming attraction… 'Common Reasons I See People Fail at Buy and Hold Real Estate, and How to Avoid Them So You Can Become Financially Free!!! Yes, it works, even in this real estate market, if you just do it correctly!'