How to Develop Sustained Financial Freedom

WEEKLY DEVOTIONAL BY PATRICE TSAGUE

What is sustained financial freedom?
Are you currently experiencing it?
How does one develop sustained financial freedom? 

How to Develop Sustained Financial Freedom

Financial freedom is reached when, through consistent wealth creation, we have the ability to make life choices without being constrained by insufficient resources. Passive income is a key component in achieving this. When the money generated through passive income allows financial freedom to be experienced consistently over time, sustained financial freedom is the result. 

Biblical Entrepreneurs are able to create wealth through their businesses, which gives them the freedom to worship and serve the Lord. However, that freedom can only be sustained if they use the wealth created through their business to invest in other opportunities that do not require them to be actively involved to generate continuous income streams. Such opportunities are known as passive income.  

Are you currently experiencing sustained financial freedom?

In my years of experience, I’ve seen entrepreneurs achieve financial freedom but then go on to lose it,  because their active income stream was lost, they made bad investment decisions, or there was a sudden market shift that was not anticipated, and they were then unable to pivot in time to recover. As the macroeconomic systems of this world are by and large ruled by those who are not redeemed, nothing is guaranteed, and you cannot shield yourself totally from all risks. However, there are things you can do to increase your chances of experiencing sustained financial freedom.  

Steven Chartier is in his mid to late 50s; he and his wife just recently relocated to a beach town in Florida after they sold their business and achieved the last step to reaching their goal of sustained financial freedom. They now work full-time in building a ministry they founded called Good Soil Partners, which is fully funded by them. They are also involved in other ministries such as the Nehemiah Project, where they invest their time, talents, and treasures. 

Steven grew up poor and never went to college, but he learned a trade from his uncle, who was a master plumber. After being fired by his uncle, Steven and his brothers started a plumbing business, which they grew to sustainability and then successfully sold. This enabled Steven to devote himself full-time to pursuing his passion for training entrepreneurs and leaders in Malawi to build Kingdom companies and servant leaders to transform their nation. What enabled Steven to make this transition was the fact that he had been able to successfully achieve sustained financial freedom.  

Here are 5 Steps to Developing Sustained Financial Freedom:

1. Assess the stage of your business – When Steven began his journey towards sustained financial freedom, his business was at sustainability, but that is not always the case for most entrepreneurs. The effectiveness of your sustained financial freedom strategy will depend on the stage of your business. The ideal stage to start is either before you launch the business or when your business is profitable. This enables you to use the margins you have to invest in passive income.  

2. Build your business until it reaches sustainability – A sustainable business is partially passive. Growing your business until it reaches sustainability enables you to have the margin of time and money to be able to invest more aggressively toward the establishment of passive income activities or other businesses.  

3. Diversify your income streams – You cannot achieve sustained financial freedom without a diversified income strategy. Look to diversify your business income or your personal income. The journey toward sustained financial freedom begins with active income. This should lead to creating a framework for recurring income, and then moving into passive income.  

4. Clarify your Identity and Destiny – Assuming that you took time to develop your purpose mosaic through Identity and Destiny, it is now time to clarify it, because things may have changed along the way. Since the purpose of realizing sustained financial freedom is to worship and serve the Lord through your time, talent, and treasure, you want to make sure that before you reach your goal, you are clear on how the Lord wants you to serve Him with your newfound freedom.  

5. Have a clear exit strategy for your business – Although a sustainable business is partially passive, you are not truly free from the demands of your business until you exit from it, because otherwise it will still require your focus and engagement to some extent. You will not achieve true freedom until you fully exit the business.  

Where are you in your journey towards sustained financial freedom? It is never too late to start, and it is never too early to begin. Begin your journey today and trust the Lord to give you the grace and provision to exceed your expected timeline.  

My prayer for you today is that God will give you the courage to start your journey towards sustained financial freedom and the grace to achieve it.