The first book I can remember reading was Tootles the Taxi. Well strictly speaking my Mum read it to me, when I was about four. I’ve always loved words, reading and writing. Here is my brief story of my book reading and trading side hustle. English language was my strongest subject at school. My reading became more ‘sophisticated’ through my childhood. I devoured science books, books on the paranormal, science fiction and horror.

Bury market

But almost all of a sudden, I stopped reading when I left High School. My only writing was essays at college and university. As any poor student knows, one needs cash for essentials – beer and cigs in the Student Union. I remember being particularly skint at the end of one Autumn term. I was back home from university for Christmas and my Grant and Summer job savings had long since gone.

As I walked around the World Famous Bury Market that Winter touting for some casual work, I noticed a little second hand book stand.

The proprietor was a little stout fellow, who reminded me of Arthur Lowe. I asked him if there was any part-time work going. He said no, but if I was really desperate, that he also bought books to re-sell.

Two hours later I was back at his book stall with carrier bags stuffed with all my old book collection. I can’t remember how much money I sold them for, but it was enough for a couple of nights out down the pub with my mates.

Much more valuable than the money, though, was that this was my first realisation that people will pay you money for things you no longer need. This was 1990, Amazon was a river and ‘online’ sounded like something to do with trains. However this episode, which was repeated over the next few months with old records and toys, was to stay with me.

Iceland Boss

“So tell me about your thesis”.

This was Bill Wadsworth, the Technical Director for Iceland Frozen Foods at the time. I was now aged 26 and sat in my second interview for a job in a technical position in their buying department.  Bill then let me ramble on for the next 10 minutes as I pontificated about the effects of invasive species of plants, such as Indian Balsam, on over-wintering insects of the British Isles.

The next words out of his mouth were, to me, the most profound and life-changing words that anyone has ever said to me before or since.

He said,

“That is a complete and utter waste of time.”

“My advice to you, even if you don’t get this job is to go down to your local library, get a library ticket, use it and learn something useful.”

Now just let that settle for a moment.

I got switched on

I did get that job at Iceland and as you can probably guess I did get myself a library ticket. It had been a decade since I had read anything other than University textbooks, The United Review or the New Musical Express.

My first lot of books were practical self-help, things that I could read and apply right there and then. There were books on Time Management, Communication Skills and Public Speaking. Then later I was drawn to authors like Norman Vincent Peale, Napoleon Hill, Dale Carnegie, Susan Jeffers. This stuff was great. It struck a chord with me. I knew that anyone could achieve anything they believe. But here were people showing you how.

Avid Reader

The more I read and applied, the more I developed; but the more I knew that I needed to develop. (I still do). Very soon I outgrew my little local library. By the late ’90s, the internet was taking off and you could buy anything online.  You could even compare prices to get the cheapest. People would also review the books, so you actually knew if the book was worth getting or not.

Too many books to store

My personal library grew and grew and grew until I had four bookcases full. It was getting ridiculous. There were boxes of books I hadn’t read. My collection was like the Hydra. After every book I read, seven more would appear. Something had to give. I needed a cull. I remembered Bury Market.

Selling my unwanted books on eBay

Both Arthur Lowe and my little friend on Bury Market are sadly no longer with us, but their memories stay with us. I was desperate again. This time it was space I needed.

I’d already done some small scale decluttering and made a few quid on eBay. Why didn’t I sell some of my books on eBay? EBay has just recently added fixed pricing, so you weren’t at the whim of the auction. Some of my books were worth a bit. I didn’t want to list them for £0.99 and have some cheapskate get a bargain at my expense. I go into more depth later on the mechanics of selling on eBay in my book How to Make Money from Your Reading Habit, but suffice to say it was a god send.

Then Selling on Amazon

One of the downsides to EBay is that you have to keep re-listing your item. You can also only list about 20 items free of charge, before you get charged a listing fee.

With Amazon however, you only get charged a fee when the item is sold. You also don’t need to relist it. Once it’s up, it stays up.

So Amazon became my go to platform for selling books

I Realised I could buy back cheaper

All this selling was damn addictive. I found it very satisfying getting shut of things you no longer needed or had room for, to people who wanted it, whilst getting paid a price the buyer was happy with. Beautiful.

That is until I accidentally sold something I wanted to keep. Now with both Amazon and EBay you can always cancel a sale and refund the buyer. However that didn’t sit well with me so I used to go through with the sale reluctantly. Then one time, I looked back on Amazon a few months later, to look for Getting Things Done by David Allen (Recommended), which I’d accidentally sold, with a view to buying it back again. Low and behold, I discovered that a used copy was on sale for less than I had sold it, including all the postage and fees.

It was a light-bulb moment.

I’d sold a book I didn’t need at the time. I bought it back when I did need it and I still had a few quid left over from the first sale. I go into more detail on the maths side of things in my book, but for now, just realise that you can rent out your books, of a fashion.

If you would like to find out more check out my book How to Make Money from Your Reading Habit.

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Here is one step that more than any other can really boost your Job Free Income. That is when you invest in property.

Why Invest In Property?

This is the longest chapter in this book, because I believe that property is the bedrock of real financial independence and wealth. It is the surest way for you to escape the rat race.

The Rat Race – what about you?

What is the rat race? You come out of full time education, blinking into the sunlight of the real world. Then you get a job, because you need to stand on your own two feet. You meet and fall in love with your life partner. Then you get your first house and a mort-gage. (Agreement until death). Then there is the pitter-patter of tiny feet, more expenses and responsibility. You start to think about your future and join the company’s pension scheme, with the dream of retiring happy one day, if you’re lucky.

Meanwhile you get promotions and pay rises. The addiction of more money, which you spend on cars, holidays and luxuries. You earn more, you spend more, so that you need more and more money, just to stand still. You are effectively enslaved to your job, the bank and the credit card companies.
And what about that pension? As I write this the average life expectancy in the UK is 81 and the current state pension is going up to age 67. It will eventually reach 71 and more. Currently the UK state pension is £130 per week or £6,895 per year. I don’t know about you, but this is not enough to live on.

Then there’s the company pensions. Many of the defined benefit/final salary schemes are being closed down or at least to new members. The alternatives are the defined contribution schemes, where you are relying on the stock market, which has it’s associated risks.
Property for me, therefore is the foundation of my future financial freedom.

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It’s time to trade in your passion. If you have sold your unwanted stuff, you should now have a wad of cash. Okay maybe not enough to buy a Ferrari, but what are you going to do with it? Spend it on more stuff? You could, but that’s not the way to financial independence. What I would advise is that you use it as seed money to start a little part-time business buying and selling for profit: Trade in your passion.

Finding Your Passion

Why trade in your passion? Aside from the obvious – doing what you love, it’s because if you love the subject matter, you will love spending time on it. The more time you spend on it the more expert you become. The more expert you become, the more valuable you become to other people. This means the more valuable you become to other people, the more you will get paid.

Firstly, how can you trade in your passion, when you don’t know what your passion is? It may or may not be obvious. You will need to ask yourself some questions. What do you love to read about? What magazines do you buy. Also think about what do you ‘waste’ time doing. You might think it’s a waste of time but maybe it’s not. This is your life, your passion.

Here are a few examples, although there are millions:

• Gardening
• Cooking
• DIY
• Playing a sport (there are hundreds)
• Watching a football team (do you have a season ticket and go to watch your team through thick and thin).
• Music (what genre?)
• Fashion
• Cinema – a specific genre of films or specific actor
• Gadgets
• Photography
• Theatre
• Stamp collecting etc.

Still stuck? Go to your local Newsagent’s or Superstore’s magazine stands; If you could choose one magazine what would it be? That could be your fledgling passion
Still stuck? Ok here’s £1,000,000 for you. You pay off your mortgage, buy a new car, book a nice holiday. Now what are you going to do. You can do anything – what is it?
There is money to be made in any passion or hobby, especially in this age of the internet. All you need to do is find people who want to buy what you have. Here are some ideas right off the top of my head:

Are you a massive Football supporter? – trade in match programs or memorabilia.
Are you passionate about Cooking? – trade cookery books online, write recipes to sell online.
Do you love gardening? – repair old hand tools, repair lawn mowers, trade in seeds.
Are you a sports fanatic? e.g. golf – trade second hand golfing equipment.
The list is endless, it really is. Don’t edit yourself though. Okay you might not be able to give up the day job to trade vinyl records, but you will be learning to add value and earn profits. AND YOU ARE HAVING FUN.

Where to Find Cheap or Free items to trade

The next step is to find a cheap source of what you want to sell. Here are some ideas:

• eBay – use the “Follow this Search” function so that eBay sends you an email when what you want is listed. You can set it at the price you want and also by location. Also check eBay for job lots and wholesale listings.
• Charity Shops – It is strange to think that some people might not quite value the same things that you do. You might pick up what you want for pennies.
• Car boot sales – A tremendous source of cheap stuff, if you spend the time trawling through it.
• Public auctions – You might be able to buy job lots of what you want.
• Fix stuff – Do you know how something works. Can you find a source of spare parts to fix up things and then sell them on e.g. cars, computers, white goods mobile phones etc.
• Add Value – for example restore old furniture.
• Knock on doors in your neighbourhood – do they have any broken items, which you can take away and repair?

Amazon to eBay and Back

Here’s a really neat way to trade in your passion, that I discovered by accident whilst trading in my passion – books:

Not everyone who buys on Amazon, buys on eBay and
Not everyone who sells on eBay, sells on Amazon.

What the hell does this mean? Well its called arbitrage and it means that sometimes you can pick up an absolute bargain on eBay and simply re-list it on Amazon for a tidy profit. You are exploiting the differences in the demand and prices on both platforms. Here’s how I do it, I first put all my books up for sale on Amazon. This does take some time, as I research the price for each book. Once the item is sold I buy it back at a lower price on eBay. When it arrives I simply relist it back on Amazon, at the higher price. The net result is I still have the original item plus some nice profits. In a way it’s like my personal library is paying me rent to live in my house!

The logical next step once you start to trade in your passion, is to get your own online presence. This will be the subject of our next chapter. Build a Web Based Business.

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The quickest and easiest way to accelerate the process of saving up money is to increase your income. One great way is to sell your unwanted stuff.

Here are some ways to raise extra cash quickly.

De-cluttering

For most people who can’t directly affect how much they get paid, I would say that the first task should be to turn your unwanted stuff into immediate cash. Yes I know it’s not regular income like a salary but it helps in several ways: First you bring in some extra cash that can be seed money for an investment. Second the process of getting rid of unwanted stuff has the important psychological effect of clearing the decks mentally as well as physically; It’s amazing how you get more ideas when your physical world is ordered. Thirdly it will prove to yourself that you can manifest money into your life, when you need it.

Be honest, how much stuff have you got that you don’t need or want? Someone, somewhere needs or wants that stuff. Sell your unwanted stuff and they will pay you cool, hard cash.
When I first started on this process, our loft was a great place to find stuff to make some money. At that time we had been in our current house for about 8 years and the stuff we had accumulated was awesome (and not in the good ‘awesome’ way).
We’d actually brought clutter in from our old house! We all do it; When our living space gets too cluttered we just shove the stuff through that hatch in the ceiling, to be forgotten.

The De-Cluttering Process

Well, the first thing to do is to confront the problem, get in the loft and have a look. I know it can be daunting, but it doesn’t have to be cleared in one go. The beauty of the method I learned was that you can just chip away at the issue.
So one by one go through each item and allocate it to one corner of the loft depending on which of the following categories it is:

The first pile can be stuff to keep – have you used this item in the last year? If not, it goes. If its sentimental, why is it stuffed away up in the loft?
Next is stuff to sell on Amazon/eBay – These are smaller items that can be easily posted and are in good condition.
Stuff to sell on a car-boot or jumble sale – These are larger items, bric-a-brac and stuff that might be ‘a bit tired, but in working order’.
Stuff to give away to the charity shop – Old clothes etc.
Then there is fifth category – To throw away and recycle. This category doesn’t have a corner because you will throw it away immediately, if possible, or at least bag it up ready for the trip to the recycle centre.

A great book on this subject is Organizing from the Inside Out by Julie Morgenstern.

Amazon

Amazon is a surprisingly easy place to sell your unwanted stuff; I prefer it to eBay. The beauty of selling on Amazon is that you only have to list the item once, then sit back a wait for the sale. The downside is that you don’t get the upside of the auction like on eBay. First check the price of similar items listed on Amazon and place yours at what you would reasonable expect to pay. If a lot of the similar items are listed as £0.01 list at your minimum and list on eBay as well.

eBay

Open an account if you don’t already have one. When you list your item, take good photos. Really ‘sell’ the item. Give the item a good descriptive title; think about what people will search for. For instance if you are selling a book, don’t just list the book title and authors name; what is the book about what does it tell you? Write a great description; again do a selling job.

Car-boot Sales

Finally if you like dealing with people face to face, the good old Car-Boot sale can be a lively place to sell your unwanted stuff. Always plan ahead, though. I have done a few car-boot sales and I can tell you from experience that if you turn up unprepared you will get flustered and harassed by people asking you ‘how much is this?’ or ‘Do you have change of a £20 note?’

So get prepared, have an idea of what price you will be prepared to sell each item. You could put price tags on, but I think it’s best to let people ask you how much it is. Also think about your lowest price as well – plan to barter. Do take plenty of spare change and empty plastic bags. Arrive early. This will mean you can set up before the masses arrive and lay out your stall. You can also choose the good spots. Car-boot sales are really fun and addictive as well.

The funny thing about clearing away clutter, physical clutter, is that it seems to stimulate the removal of mental clutter. If you have a clear physical environment, you create clarity of thought. You should now also have some spare cash and lots of space. With that clarity of thought, space and spare cash you can then start to to get creative. It’s time to move onwards and upwards by creating even more income by: Trading In Your Passions. We will cover this in our next chapter.

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We have now arrived at the final step of the process for achieving financial independence: Invest for Income.
All of your income, savings and investments, so far, will be funneled into a system that will invest in property. You will earn rental profits, after you have paid your expenses (see Step Eleven: Invest in Property). It will be tempting to go out and spend this income, as if it were a pay-rise, however, you’re not going to do that. You will invest for income.

The Goose that Lays Golden Eggs

If you read enough around the area of financial independence, you will have undoubtedly have come across the term Passive Income. All investments will need at least some attention, even the most passive and secure – cash. The money you will finally get to live off, when you reach financial independence, should be as secure as possible. With risk, comes reward, particularly for investing for growth. For income, think security. Think of this as your goose that lays golden eggs. If you feed and look after your goose, she will reward you with a lifetime of golden eggs. Your system of investments: First Security and Growth, then Property, will provide you with more and more geese, laying more and more golden eggs.
Eventually you can live off this income without touching your earned or business income. You will then be financially independent.

Which Vehicles to Invest for Income

You could buy Managed Funds, similar to those for security and growth. Again these can be equity funds, Index trackers, Investment Trusts, which could be in a Tax efficient vehicle such as an ISA (UK). These funds could be invested into Equities, bonds and cash. Consult your Independent Financial Adviser before investing. They should help you with what is termed asset allocation, this means what proportion of equities, bonds and cash these funds hold.

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Congratulations if you have now bought your first investment property. Now you have to consider the next phase, property letting.

Renovating

If you do buy a distressed property, that needs renovation remember you are doing it up to either let out or sell – not to live in. You don’t need to buy the top of the range of everything – try to keep your costs down as they can spiral. Even though the property belongs to you it will be someone else’s Home. The decor should therefore be neutral and minimal . Let your tenants put their stamp on it.

Letting Out

Letting agents can take the hassle out of letting out and can be a source of help and information. You can also get them to manage the property so you never have to worry about calling a plumber out. They will charge you, normally about 10% of the rent, plus any costs.
DIY – if you are going to do it yourself. Do seek advice first – the government has produced guides for landlords. Check out the Government website.
Legal requirements – your Solicitor should highlight the legal requirements to you, such as Gas Appliance Test certificates, fire smoke detectors. Your local Council should also help here too.

Furnished or unfurnished?

This depends on your target market. Seek advice from the Letting agent if you are going to use one.

Real Life examples of property investing

Let’s take an example of an ordinary two bedroom semi-detached property. You buy it for £90,000. You then will spend a further £20,000 on fees and refurbishment. Your total spend is £110,000. Then you get the house re-valued by a mortgage lender at £135,000. You then sell it for £132,000 in six months, netting you £22,000 for six months work. (£132,000-£110,000 = £22,000). Not too shabby.
Summary #1
2 Bed Semi £90,000
Refurb & fees £20,000
Total spend £110,000
Revalue £135,000
Sold £132,000
Total Profit £22,000

Getting paid to Buy

Here’s another way to invest, without any money. Lets keep the figures modest.
You find a property which fits the bill and purchase for £36k, using the bank of Mum and Dad, friends etc and 0% credit card(s). (Yes as I write this in 2018, banks are offering 0% credit cards for up to seventeen months before you pay them off). There are £6k costs including the refurb. The total cost is £42K.
You get the house valued at £60k. Remember Rightmove.co.uk – you already knew this was the true value. You then secure a buy to let mortgage at 75% loan to value. Your mortgage is therefore £45K. You collect this money and pay off your credit card and your other creditors, leaving you with £3,000 cash out. Perhaps split this with Mum and Dad or whoever.
You then rent this property out for £450 per month. The mortgage is say 4.8% which is £180 per month. And then there are other costs of £45. This leaves you with a cash-flow of £225 per month, passive income.

Summary #2
Purchase price £36,000
Refurb & fees £6,000
Total spend £42,000
Revalue £45,000
Cash Out £3,000
Rent £450/m
Mortgage £180/m
Other costs £45/m
Total Cash flow £225/m

Houses of Multiple Occupancy (HMO)

In the UK, if you have a HMO with less than 7 people, you don’t need to declare this to the Local Authorities. For example, you could find four people, each who pay £250 per month, which will generate revenue of £1,083 per month.
Who would be interested in living in a HMO? Well if you property is in a large City, near to train stations, Universities or a Hospital, you could have Professionals or Students.
In our example number 2 above you would net £500 per month in cash-flow.

Do Not Touch these deals

Off plans – Too many unknowns and uncertainties. Its better sticking to something simple.
New Builds – almost always these properties will be priced above their actual value.
Overseas – there are so many pitfalls to this, in terms of the legals. And you are not present.

Re-Mortgaging

Once you have let the property out you should be getting nice monthly profits. If you’ve done everything properly, the equity in the property will also increase. Why not release this equity and use the capital to fund the next investment? Check with your mortgage provider when you can re-mortgage.

Summary

1. Find the area first.
2. Find motivated sellers – put out adverts, leaflet.
3. Find average houses in average areas.
4. Check the finances – does the deal stack up (mortgage, rent, fees, unoccupied, returns)
5. Put an offer in for 25% below market value.
6. If no – move on.
7. If yes – then get financing.
8. Do the deal.
9. Get an agent to manage it.
10. Repeat.

So now we are coming to the end of this book on becoming financially independent and retiring early from the Rat Race. In the final chapter we will discuss what to do with the profits from your property investment.

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This short book is about Financial Freedom and how you can gain it as quickly as possible. From now on we will call Retirement – Financial Freedom, because that is what it is. When someone retires, they receive income from the investments that their company, pension provider or the Government have made on their behalf.
Financial Freedom is therefore when the income from your investments covers your expenses every month. The aim is to reach Financial Independence as soon as you can, so that you can lead the life you always wanted. You can then retire – if you want.
There are Twelve Steps to Financial Freedom. The first four steps should be done in order, sequentially. The last eight steps can be done in any order and also concurrently. However, I’ve set all of the steps in a logical sequence, which if you follow, will get you to your goal in the shortest time

Private Income versus expenses

A concept to get your head around is what can be called private income. This is any income you receive which is NOT from your job. I will go in to more details later on, but briefly this could also include:

Interest on savings
Dividends from shares
Profits from a part-time business
Royalties from book or music sales
Profits from property rental income

Passive income myth

There will always be some activity required from you. This will be in varying degrees depending on the type of income. The important thing is that you are in control of that income.
You might hear the term passive income to describe private income. Be careful with the term Passive income, as it implies that you don’t have to do anything. Bank Interest could be very passive income, but you still need to keep tabs on the interest rates and inflation.

Therefore, if your private income exceeds your expenses every month you have achieved financial independence. You can then resign your job. (If you want to). That is what I and this book are all about.

Why Seek Financial Independence?

Here are three key reason why you should seek financial independence as soon as possible.

1. Job Insecurity

As you know, the days of a job for life are gone forever. We are all at the whim of a global financial system. Small companies to large corporations face a constant struggle for survival. Governments need to try to balance the books.
The biggest overhead for companies is Human Resources, so the quickest and easiest way to reduce this overhead is to restructure (aka sack some employees).
Faced with this we have a choice, we can put up with it and hope it’s not our turn next, or we can take back control and choose Financial Independence as soon as possible.

2. Pension crisis

In spite of the above we are all living in the best time ever to be alive. We are healthier and live longer than at any point in human history. This is a problem for the current Pension model, which is not sustainable.
The current system simply can’t afford to pay pensions to all the people who are retired and all the Baby Boomers who are about to retire. This is why governments are increasing the retirement age. Again the answer is to wrestle back control, now, by building your financial independence nest egg.

3. Work on the projects you want

Another big reason to go for financial independence, now, is more philosophical. What is the meaning of life? Is it to get a good job and build a career, whilst simultaneously making the business owners wealthy?
Or is it to grow and express yourself. Or, work on something worthwhile and perhaps even change the world for the better. Many lucky people find a career that fulfills this basic human need for meaning.
The vast majority don’t and are just working to pay the bills; I know I used to. So if your career is not meeting your life’s purpose then choose financial independence. This will give you the time and freedom to work on the projects you want to.
I passionately believe in personal development and that every person should fulfill his or her potential. For many people a humdrum job prevents them from fulfilling their potential.

In this day and age, nobody should have to do a job they hate.

How Long Will It Take?

In this book, I will share how to reach financial independence, step by step, as soon as possible.
How long will it take? I honestly don’t know; everyone is different, but the beauty is you can go at your own pace. You set your timescales. Be warned though it is NOT a get rich quick scheme. Get rich quick schemes are scams designed to make their creators rich, not you.

The 5 Stages of Financial Independence

You can break down Financial Independence into five stages. This helps you from being overwhelmed by how far you may need to go.

1. Financial protection

The first stage is financial protection, where you will protect the wealth and income you have now and prepare for protecting the riches before they come.

2. Financial security

Next is financial security – this is when your private income (remember income derived not from a job) covers your basic needs: Mortgage, food, utilities, transport, insurances and tax. If you lost your job, for instance, you could still survive at a basic level.

3. Financial vitality

Next is financial vitality, This is when your private income covers the basics plus allows for a modest lifestyle: Satellite/cable subscription, mobile phone, clothes, education, fitness classes etc.

4. Financial independence

I would define Financial Independence as when your private income covers all of your expenses to allow for your current lifestyle now.

5. Financial freedom

Why stop at Financial Independence when you could carry on for Financial Freedom, which is when you can choose your own lifestyle?

So if you are ready, let’s dive into the first step on the road to financial independence.

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