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The Template of Financial Freedom
The Slave Of Money
When it comes to financial freedom, being rich with good returns on investment (ROI) is one of the SEXIEST talked-about term.
In fact, many people are of the opinion that ROI is the single most important factor when it comes to investing. In their minds, the better the ROI, the higher their returns, and the more quickly their money can grow.
This is also one of the reasons why many webinars, and investment “gurus” drum up content to share the “best-kept secrets” to profit from the narrative.
The truth is, ROI is overrated, and has become too much of an obsession for the majority who are looking to grow their wealth. In my opinion, ROI is just one of the many factors that will contribute to your FINANCIAL FREEDOM.
Financial freedom means that you get to make life decisions without being overly stressed about the financial impact because you are prepared for it. You are in control of your finances instead of being controlled by it. In other words, you know your needs and wants, and how the money you have can take care of these things at any stage of your life.
In The Slave of Money, I’m going to highlight eight other factors that are crucial in achieving your financial freedom:
Factors That Are Crucial In Achieving Your Financial Freedom
Financial Freedom Goal To Achieve
First and foremost, all wealth begins in the mind. By knowing your financial freedom goal, you are like a ship sailing with clear direction. With a clearer understanding of the financial freedom numbers, you will be better guided – you might even be surprised to find that many of us have in fact already achieved our basic financial freedom numbers.
What would you say to achieving the basic financial freedom numbers first, and thereafter, to elevate your financial goals? Surely this would allow you a much clearer vision in achieving your goals in milestones.
Your Money In The Context Of Your Life
What are your needs and wants to live your life to the fullest? Define wealth creation, preservation, accumulation, protection and distribution to your best understanding; it is like a compass for your sailing ship as it helps you make monetary decisions along your life.
Some examples are how much you intend to allocate for your own house to stay and car to drive. Those could be the biggest sum of money in single item you might be spending in credit. Buying a property can impact you for the next ten to 30 years, as you will be locked in to pay monthly property loans.
Compared with a RM750,000 property, you will have less money saved up and forced to achieve a higher ROI for your financial freedom numbers if your dream home was a lavish RM2mil bungalow.
Besides, how you want your children to be educated would be another biggest expense in your life. However, the more money you spend on your children’s education, the less money you’ll have to fund your financial goals.
Your Stage Of Life Now
In money quotient stages, whether you are in the beginning stage of earning personal positive cash flow, stage of committing liabilities or stage of positive liquid net worth; it would differ you from the age or the point in life and sum of possible cash flow/money in how long and how much you can invest. The more time your investments have, the more time they have for compounded interest to build up.
Therefore, the earlier you start investing, the better the position you will find yourself in. When time is on your side, you can even go for less riskier investments with lower or consistent performing ROI, to achieve your plans for financial freedom.
For example, if you start investing in your 20s, there’s still plenty of time for your money to grow and compound even with a low to moderate ROI. We are talking about additional 30 investing years until retirement.
In contrast, if you start investing when you’re in your 50s, you will have only about 10 years for your wealth to grow. This could get stressful, especially when you’ll be forced to look for investments with higher ROI to make up for the lost time.
Your Cash Flow Management Habits
Building a good savings habit is crucial. The more money set aside for savings on a monthly basis, the more you can DIVERSIFY and accumulate to fund your financial goals.
When you have consistently saved, the added security will give you choices; when you have more money to invest also means to be able to achieve early financial freedom with more option to decide for your life. For example, there’s more than one way to grow money without taking unnecessary risks with high ROI investments and you will always have funds as reinvestment capital even when the market is down.
Your Household Cash Flow Management
Household cash flow management in this context refers to the income that both you and your spouse make and spend. The more your household income and the less your spending is, the more access you have to save and contribute towards financial freedom.
Compared with a single-income households, it is definitely easier when both spouses are working and share on some basis expenses like spaces, vehicles or utilities.. Besides, if someone is able to generate alternative business income through multiple means, it is just as crucial, if not more crucial, than chasing a high ROI.
Your Luxury Expenses
Wedding, house renovation, luxury hobbies or holiday expenses are another luxury item that slowly add up. Don’t worry, being financially free is not asking you to sacrifice your desired lifestyles altogether.
However, in terms of reaching your financial goals, someone who spends active income versus passive investment income for luxury expenses would definitely make the differences in achieving elevated financial freedom. Someone who spends RM20,000 a year on luxury expenses with passive investment income would definitely be in a better position than someone who spends RM20,000 a year with merely active income.
Instead of splurging all your hard-earned money on one occasion, why not channel what would have been your luxury expenses fund into your investments to attain elevated financial freedom in milestones while spending only the reasonable amount according to your cash flow plan.
Your Medical And Healthcare Provision
Medical and healthcare bills are expensive as health but is more important than wealth when it comes to a certain point of choice. They usually get costlier as you get older. It goes to say that the more money you spend on your medical provision, the less resources you will have to spend on other financial goals.
Thus, the most common way to mitigate future medical fee is to get an insurance plan to cover unpredictable medical costs while you compound your good habits to stay healthy as long as possible.
Of course, there’s also the choice of going with public healthcare instead of private healthcare.
Your Retirement Age And Desired Lifestyle
Once you retire, you lose your access to active income. Therefore, the earlier you retire, the more income you’ll need for your financial freedom, and the higher the ROI you’ll need to get there.
No one wants to work forever, but someone might be able to live a pre-tirement lifestyle, which means you can decide your way to continuously contribute your values with your own liking and pace of living to constantly generate income while you have achieved the basic financial freedom.
Besides, the kind of lifestyle you want for yourself would determine the cost of your pre-tirement or retirement. The more you’ll need to save to fund your retirement expenses; the higher the ROI you’ll need to achieve to attain financial freedom.
The eight factors that are listed here are not ground-breaking information.
If you can stop obsessing on ROI alone and start focusing on all nine factors to unleash the full potential of your wealth, you will find all these moving parts working and compounding simultaneously to attain the financial freedom that you are seeking.
Out of the 9 factors covered, only one aspect is out of our locus of control, which is ROI. Therefore, it makes even less sense for anyone to zoom into the one factor that lies beyond our control, and commit all our effort and hopes for it to grant us financial freedom.
Meanwhile, the rest of the eight factors here are within your control.
You can control how much to save, how much to spend on your vacation, when you want to retire, how much your children’s education expenses should be, how much your medical expenses provision should be, how much your living expenses should be in retirement, and, to a certain extent, your household income. Therefore, if you are committed to achieving your financial goals and financial freedom, start looking at your finances holistically from the standpoint of all the nine factors that I’ve highlighted here and start taking appropriate action.
Ideally, everyone should get a holistic financial plan done to manage these nine factors effectively. Consider yourself to engage a Licensed Financial Planner to coach you along the path to financial freedom.
However, if DIY personal finance is preferred, there is
1) a portal of Financial Freedom Community-www.ffc.asia with Financial Freedom Numbers Calculator and Financial Health Check guides available
2) a book on The Template of Financial Freedom – The Slave of Money and
3) a course on Financial Planning and You, could guide you to manage your financial plan effectively to achieve your financial freedom.
“People are aware of the importance of financial planning from an early age. However, they do not know where to begin. The Slave of
Money is a book that will teach you how to become financially
independent as early as possible. This book is highly
recommended.”
E K Lee
Director, Head of Banca Sales Specialist at CIMB“Jason has been remarkable in his research and presenting financial
information for the benefit of all. A truly comprehensive book with
the relevant details. Highly recommended.”
Karunamoorthy K
LLB, CLP, CFP, FChFP, RFP, Past President and Fellow of National Association of Malaysian Life Insurance Fieldforce and Advisers (NAMLIFA) and ex-member of the Board of Directors of the Malaysian Insurance Institute (MII), Advisor of Financial Freedom Community“Over the course of my many years in the insurance industry,I have
come across various books written on financial management by
authors in the industry. However, I find Jason’s book very relatable
and relevant, citing real-life stories helping the reader to appreciate
the context and situation of finding financial freedom. During his
tenure over the year sin Great Eastern, and working through the
ranks to a Group Manager, Jason has always demonstrated his
dedication
and passion in providing customers financial protection solutions.
You will find the same qualities in his book. I am proud of his
achievement and look forward to his continued devotion in the future.”
Dato Koh Yaw Hui
CEO, Great Eastern Life Ass (M) Bhd“What an interesting and enlightening book. It is full of stories that
we can relate to. In this book, Jason gives practical advise to achieve
financial freedom rather than be a slave to money. The author’s take
on importance of planning cannot be over emphasized because it is
really important to plan ahead so to be able to live comfortably and
leave a legacy for your loved ones. I like the part where Jason highlights
that the next generation should not be saddled with the debts of the
deceased resulting in the family having nothing or too little to
inherit. It is a legacy of financial difficulty instead of a legacy of
love.”
Azhar Iskandar Hew
CEO, Rockwills Corporation Sdn Bhd“Jason has been favourably known to me for more than 20 years as a
leader and practitioner infinancial planning. He has also served Malaysian
Financial Planning Council as Secretary and Treasurer of Penang Chapter.
His accumulated knowledge and experience in financial planning are
now available in this book. Financial planning is particularly relevant
and crucial to mitigate the disastrous financial impact of Covid-19!
Sharing is caring!”
Dr. Chai Kon Lim
Fellow Malaysia Financial Planning Council“The book was written with his spirit of giving and sharing has
created a Financial Freedom Community Project to cater continuous
FinancialEducation to help more people to set themselves free from
becomingthe Slave of Money and develop a systematic template of
financial freedom. He has also quoted a lot of peoples’ success
story of the relationship between life values and money.”
Tan Kim Book
Licensed Financial Planner, Advisor of Financial Freedom Community“As I am an advocate of good financial planning myself, having had
my share of accomplishment in doing so, I am delighted to cheer on
this effort by Jason Koeh, and I sincerely congratulate him on his
first publication The Slave of Money. Given my background I am,
needless to say, passionate about this topic. But alas, it isn’t a subject
understood by many, when the truth is, every person should have
great financial knowledge to be successful and to live their desired
lifestyle. The book is essentially, chapter after chapter of useful
gems that will bring an individual closer to their dreams of being
financially independent andtruly free from the shackles of poor money
management. It’s refreshing to find too that the language style he
chose to use is far from being long-winded with complicated phrases
and jargons. Since he has opted for a simple and straightforward
method of delivery, practically
anyone, from any walk of life can follow its direction and be led
through the path of financial freedom. Kudos to the author for this
awe-inspiring book!”
Steve Teoh
Senior Advisor of MyLife and ULearn Money. Former President, Financial Planning Association of M’sia“As a passionate financial advisor, Jason Koeh in his book - The
Slave of Money has created an awakening impact to every human
who desires financial freedom. Indeed, in pursue of Money in life
and being its slave and loosing out dignity or health is unworthy
and not the right destiny. The readers will appreciate the many
inspirational quotes of the great man and woman of the past,
making this book full of wisdom and motivational power.
Congratulation to Jason forthis great work!”
Amy Seok
Founding Chairman of MyLife Association. Founder & CEO of Money Compass Media Group“The Slave of Money provides very insightful and breakthrough
views and practices in personal finances for the long term. It
draws inspirations from diverse global leadership in their own right to
further demonstrate the views. It challenges the traditional financial
planning with personal choices and life goals setting. Numerous
examples are provided throughout the book to illustrate to the
readers for easy understanding and implementation, it is a
wonderful book which can potentially change someone’s lives to
achieve financial freedom.”
Pekying Kubota
Former school mate. GSM at Apple, USA“Extremely insightful read, the author captivates the reader by
brilliantly weaving, not only his personal life’s journey and also key
successful entrepreneurs & influencers of our time. While carefully
navigating you through the complex world of finance. Hethen,
breaks down the key elements that impact your personal financial
planning, that can set you on a path to achieve, the much coveted
financial freedom and independence. He provides, a simple to
understand “blueprint” to achieve just that. A must read!”
Daemian Raj
Former university course mate. Senior Director of Engineering, Applied Materials“For a person who walks the talk, Jason has continuously showed
me how to make the impossible possible. Coming from a person
who preachers what he preaches, thank you for teaching us how to
reach for our dreams. A book written with flair, either to scare or
share or dare us into being multimillionaires. A book transforming
us from being a Slave of Money to a Master of Money. Reading the
book clearly shows us that being a Slave of Money is a clear and
present danger to all. Thanks for showing that being a slave of
money is something not so funny after all.”
Adam Craig
Former university course mate, Senior Manager in GLC“The book provides clear background and understanding of
financial freedom. It not only addresses the importance of
compounding interest, it also talks about the overall well-being of the
individual. It questions the why? Why do you want to spend more
time fishing and make more money? It makes you appreciate what
you already have. Wellwritten book with anecdotal examples. It is
easy to digest, and the suggested methods can be readily applied.”
Sashi Kumar Supramaniam
Former university course mate. Captain B787. B. Mechanical Engineering. Master of Science in Human Factors in Aviation, Singapore Airline“Jason has mentioned many useful practical monetary tips in his
book. These tips are essential and very useful in our daily living and
will enable us to save more money for our retirement. This book is
highly recommended to those who just starting their career.”
Dr. Lee Hock Keong
Neuro Surgeon, Island Hospital“This book makes you reconsider your life and tells you how to live
in this capitalism world.
But most of all you will find how money works for your entire life.
I like the line in this book that say “ don’t be a slave of money, rather
make money work for you.”
It’s up to you to decide how to lead your life and I’m sure that this
book will definitely help you much at least to start rethinking your
life all over especially for enjoying the rest of your life.”
Satoru Yoshizawa
Hotel owner, Japan. Travelling more than 100 countries since age of 27“This is a unique and very useful book that provides valuable
practical advice in financial planning. The book is expertly written
and it is a necessary book for today’s financial planning practices.”
Dr Chung Muh Sha
Founder, Pro Fin Consultancy“This book will help you learn the innovative fundamentals of
managing your resources to reach you ideal lifestyle at ever phase of
your life.”
Dr Issac Lim
MyTRIZ Association, Honorary Treasurer“When Jason told me about his book to help people gain financial
freedom I was intrigued because my wife and I recently retired very
comfortably before the age of50.Wewould probably still be working
but sometimes there are bumps in the road, which is why Jason’s
book is so important. So grateful we can quit our jobs because of the
financial decisions my dear wife made when we were younger.I hope
Jason’s book will help lead to your own financial freedom.”
JC
Friend, former banker, USA“Free your mind and yourself from financial bondage with Jason’s
insightful sharing’s. I have been greatly inspired by this book and
the wisdom contained therein, and I’m sure not only Malaysians
will beable to relate to his stories.”
Sam Shee
CEO, Caritech Sdn Bhd“Jason, I have always had questions on what and how do I do after
my ‘planned retirement age’ at 40 and your book has allthe answers
to my questions. Now that I have a clearer picture to live towards
the age of 40 and begin my PRE-TIREMENT life with elevated
financial freedom! Love how you summarize the points of
FREEDOM at the end of each chapter, making them stick! Thank
you.”
Eva Chew
Portfolio Manager / Trader, Straits Index (M) Sdn Bhd and Metapod Sdn Bhd“This book will help you learn the innovative fundamentals of
managingyour resources to reach you ideal lifestyle at ever phase of
your life.”
Dr Issac Lim
MyTRIZ Association, Honorary Treasurer“As the times change and evolve, we all have to follow suit, and to me, this book comes out at the best time. People need to know how to deal with financial issues realistically, using current tools and applied knowledge to make a difference in their lives. Having being involved in writing the book " A Practical Approach to Mergers and Acquisitions in Financial Services Industry" way back in 1999, and having presented various papers on investments, including equity, bond, derivatives, risk management, financial planning and others myself, I am proud to witness the publication of such an in depth book by Jason Koeh, which will no doubt be of an immense help to those who are seeking financial freedom. A must-read for today's success-seekers!”
Phua Lee Kerk
CFA. Chief Strategist of Philip Capital, co-writer of the book " A Practical Approach to Mergers and Acquistions in Financial Services Industry (1999)"The Slave Of Money
Jason Koeh is a licensed and registered financial professional. He has successfully coached many individuals to achieve financial success and now has his heart set on seeing YOU achieve Financial Freedom and enjoy your Desired Lifestyle. Follow his lead, step by step with focus and intent. You will be well on your way to financial independence.
All proceeds of the book will be funding the financial freedom community (ffc.asia) ecosystem sustainability purpose.
