In his book, Money Master the Game, Tony Robbins outlines the process of building wealth.
Tony has been a role model for me because he’s really talented at making complex situations simple to understand.
So here are Tony’s 5 levels of wealth.
1. Financial security
This is the basic amount of income you personally need to cover your current housing, utilities, food, transportation, and insurance costs. If you have this level of wealth you can explore other ways to make money. You’re not spending lots of time and energy struggling to pay your bills everyday.
2. Financial vitality
This is the level where you have enough money to cover all your basic needs, plus some of your extra spending wants, like nice clothing, dining out, entertainment, and small luxuries.
3. Financial independence
This is where you have enough investments to live the life you’re accustomed to completely independent of work. You will have all your needs and occasional luxuries covered by your wealth. This is the situation my wife and I are in now.
4. Financial freedom
Tony describes this level as enjoying everything you already have today without working, plus a few significant luxuries you want in the future. And you don’t have to work to pay for those luxuries either. 🙂 This sounds kind of like fat FIRE to me.
5. Absolute financial freedom
This is when you have enough money to do anything or buy anything you wanted without working for as long as you live. You could travel anywhere you want, any time you want and stay in the best hotels. 😀
Tony teases, “How would it feel if you and your family never had to want for anything again?”
I think that would feel quite amazing. 😁
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Leveling up
Financial freedom and retiring early may seem like huge endeavors when you’re starting out. But by breaking it down into smaller, incremental stages, the overall journey feels more achievable as you move from one level to the next. 😀
It’s interesting how Tony separates the terms “financial independence” and “financial freedom.” A lot of people like myself use them interchangeably though.
Putting labels on things is useful, but that’s all they are. What’s actually important are the money, experience, and wealth that each household can create for themselves.
My personal goals around money have always shifted and will continue to do so. I hope to one day go from level 3 to level 4, and reach Tony’s definition of financial freedom.
Which level do you aspire to reach over the next 5 or 10 years? Different levels of wealth is something I’ll be discussing in my upcoming live Q&A this weekend.
You can head over to my YouTube community page to find out more information about the free event. 🙂
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Random Useless Fact:
The saxophone is the most iconic jazz instrument of all time.
Interesting – here is my take:
Financial security = career start, low paying jobs and early days of figuring out what you want to do and how to make a living (some people never leave this phase)
Financial vitality = mid to end of a good money making career/job (assuming control of lifestyle creep)
Financial security (this is Financial Freedom in my opinion) = ability for early retirement (FIRE) or a fulfilling general retirement at age 55 to 65
Financial freedom (or Financial Decadence) = FATFIRE or waiting too long to retire from a very high paying career
Absolute financial freedom = Musk, Gates or Bezos type situation
🙂
Thanks for sharing. I like the concept of financial decadence. First time I’ve heard of it. 😀
Hey Liquid, thabks for sharing the 5 levels of wealth based on the wisdom of Tony Robins. I wholeheartedly agree with you that by breaking down the journey to FI (or FF 😛) into smaller bites and measureable steps, one can improve their odds for success. Every single action that helps one get closer to their ultimate goal helps along the way. 🙂
Great point Moe. It’s the small actions that add up to big results. 😀
I’ll be quite happy with No 4 as well…
Same. I think No 4 is enough for just about anyone. 🙂 At that point additional happiness would come from controlling the urge of wanting more rather than having more money.
As Vicky Robin says, “If you live for having it all, what you have is never enough.”
I work in the industry and it’s alarming but at the same time ironic to see how clients as well as the majority of the public keep on putting off thinking of retirement… yes, early retirement is a daunting task to even to think about but what troubles me is that why people continually do not care or put off this concept? Why do you want to wait until 65 years old to retire? Like… 65 is not even an legal retirement age, you’re more than welcome to work more or less depending on your situation, so this is my point… it’s never about the #, it’s about the mindset, unlocking that mindset to see the value of financial freedom. If you don’t care about it then don’t complain about it – simple as that
Well said. 😬 Mindset comes fist. I believe people are where they are because some part of them believes it is where they should be. It’s easier for people to complain than to change their habits, lol.
The dream is to get to stage 5 – Absolute financial freedom. Hoping to do this as soon as possible where I don’t have to work but also not scrimping.
Very cool goal. I’m trying to get to stage 4, but maybe I should strive to be more ambitious too, lol. 🙂