Hi everyone, long time lurker here!

Summary: After reading this sub for a while I noticed a lack of posts addressing personal finances, and I consider developing your financial intelligence a key step in your quest to establish a truly independent, TRP lifestlye.

I decided to start this mini series on personal finances, as a guide/template to be used by any man trying to achieve financial freedom. This post will explore several ideas and the mindset necessary to achieve financial independence. I will continue the series if there is demand, and will cover topics like business, the stock market and real estate more in depth.

So here we go:

The Red Pill Finances, Part 1: How to achieve financial freedom

Most of us are told from birth by the BP society that to be successful in life is to have a career, a well paying job.

Go to school, get good grades, get a good job, get a mortgage, a wife, have kids... sounds familiar right? Good old wisdom that is great for creating corporate slaves.

Now of course there is nothing wrong with pursuing a fulfilling career that you love with passion, however you can never truly be independent if you only have your paycheck to cover your expenses. Just think about it, how long would you survive if you stopped working right now? A month? 6 months? What if you get fired over a false rape accusation?

The main idea is to create a stream of passive income that exceeds your expenses, so you are no longer dependent on your employer for salary and you are safe from unforeseen events.

Passive income is an income received on a regular basis, with little effort required to maintain it. Examples are: dividends from stocks, income from real estate, royalties from ideas, books, blogs... you get the idea. The great thing about investment vehicles such as stocks and real estate that they also tend to appreciate in value thus producing capital gains. This helps to build your overall wealth.

You now know how to achieve financial freedom, but where do you even begin? Here are the first few steps you can take:

Step 1: Learn to live below your means

The first and most important step. Calculate your monthly expenses and cut the unnecessary bullshit. Don't use credit cards to buy luxuries you can't afford yet. This way you will achieve financial freedom quicker as you have to create less passive income to cover your expenses.

Step 2: Pay yourself first

Now that you know how much passive income you need, it's time to start building your wealth. An old but effective rule that helps you save money. Every month take 10% of your income and put it in a savings account. Do this before you pay your bills, child support, taxes etc.

Step 3: Make your money work for you

Simply saving money won't benefit you much. You have to make that money work for you. Use your savings to gradually build a portfolio that produces passive income as well as capital gains.

Step 4: Don't put all of your eggs in one basket

Now that you have began saving and investing, make sure you have multiple streams of passive income, so if you lose one of your revenue streams for some reason, you still have other sources of income to fall back on.

Step 5: Establish a corporation

You now have multiple sources of passive income and you are now a truly independent man. If you make it this far, you might consider establishing a corporation and transfer the ownership of your assets to it. There are several reasons for this: a corporation is a separate legal entity and can provide your assets protection in case you are sued or divorce raped. It also provides several deductibles (depending on your state) and helps you minimize your expenses.

Lessons learned: invest your money to become independent