Many investors get their start with the help of a mentor, an experienced advisor who may say only a few words, but words with the power to push a novice in a new, life-changing direction. That's what happened to me 3 years ago when a wise mentor shared with me the "bucket theory" that set me on track in pursuing financial independence (I haven't arrived yet, I'm still pursuing).
The theory is this: Everyone has control over three financial "buckets." The first bucket takes care of family obligations; it's the baseline with which you take care of your home, your health, your children's education, and other day-to-day necessities and monthly expenses of life. Once that bucket is full, you can start filling the second bucket: long-term investments. That bucket isn't full until it generates enough income to take care of all the needs of bucket 1 with passive income.
"Then, after you've filled buckets 1 and 2, you've earned the right to play and have toys. That's bucket 3," says the mentor. "The problem is that people start backward, and because they start with the play bucket, they aren't able to fill bucket 2 and create substantial wealth by investing."
In our case, since we believe that the purpose of having more is so that you can give more, my wife and I decided not make the 3rd bucket as our end but to come up with a 4th bucket. This bucket will be our channel for sharing God's blessing.
To achieve this we are careful and conservative financially, for example, paying down the mortgage of our own home to own it free and clear as quickly as possible.
Financial planning is also something we took very seriously. Every month we set aside 25% of our salary to save enough money in 1 year to afford the down payment for 1 rental property, with discipline we commit to payout that property in a certain time frame feasible for us. Once fully paid this will become one stream of passive income, at this point we are still in the process of paying down that property. The plan is once we have fully paid a property, we'll take a break for a while, have an out of town vacation\financial planning then we do it again.
The next investment endeavor will be different: by that time we already have our rental income in addition to our salary, and so we could move much faster. Once we already have the model in place, it is so easy to say "Let's do it again." All we have to do is keep repeating the process and hopefully reach an overflowing 4th bucket before our 40's allowing us to retire and share God's abundance.
The process is slow but it is a sure way of reaching financial independence. With discipline and frugal habits, soon enough we will have more options in life and we'll be able to pursue more meaning and fulfilling endeavors.
Looking forward to see your thoughts and comments. =)