One of the pillars of the book and, in McGee\u2019s view, of achieving financial freedom is understanding what\u2019s important to you, what you want out of life and what will make you happy, whether that\u2019s travelling, owning a holiday home, taking on a lower-paid and less stressful or more rewarding role, or having more time with family and friends or to simply do the things you enjoy.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s worth bearing in mind that retirement<\/a> is not necessarily the end goal for those who become financially independent. \u201cMore and more people are getting to the stage where it\u2019s not about reaching retirement, it\u2019s about reaching financial independence or financial freedom, where they have the choice to do whatever they want as opposed to stopping everything they\u2019re doing and just sitting reading the paper. It\u2019s more about, \u2018If I could do anything I wanted, what would I do?\u2019 That ability to get yourself into a financial position where you can do anything you want can be exciting for people.<\/p>\n \u2022 Read more money advice and tips on investing from our experts<\/a><\/p>\n \u201cIf you had a burning desire to work with a charity you can go off and do that. I have someone who wants to be a librarian. Someone else I know in their late fifties is going through the process of becoming a post person. I\u2019d love to work in a toll booth \u2014 it\u2019s the idea of taking the money, the person going through and that task is finished.\u201d<\/p>\n A good chunk of the book is dedicated to 30 big money mistakes to avoid if financial freedom is the goal. These range from comparing yourself to others, not educating yourself \u2014 or indeed having just a little bit of knowledge \u2014 and paying too much tax to not having a financial plan, not saving and thinking the route to financial freedom is to work harder.<\/p>\n McGee: \u201cLife is about experiences and not about things\u201d<\/p>\n BRYAN MEADE FOR THE SUNDAY TIMES<\/p>\n Other mistakes include taking on debt to pay for things like holidays and cars \u2014 McGee has a real concern with the buy now, pay later model and is no fan of personal contract purchase either. \u201cIf you can\u2019t afford it today, I\u2019m sorry, but you can\u2019t afford it,\u201d he writes.<\/p>\n Failing to make surplus income \u2014 over and above a buffer and money allocated to short, medium and long-term goals \u2014 and working as hard as possible is another no-no for McGee. After a period of high inflation, the squeezed middle should pay particular attention. \u201cYou no longer have the luxury of just sticking money into the credit union or your bank account. You need to step up and do things differently to get a better result than what you might have got away with in the past. One of the biggest mistakes people are making is where they\u2019ve got money and they\u2019re not using it in a way that they should be.\u201d<\/p>\n Not understanding investing or being risk averse are excuses rather than reasons to do nothing, he contends. \u201cThere is a responsibility on you to go and get yourself in a position where you\u2019re comfortable doing these things. I don\u2019t want to come across as, \u2018Oh yeah, you need to get rid of the avocado.\u2019 The message I\u2019m trying to get across is, if you\u2019re in the squeezed middle and you\u2019re handling your finances in the same way as you were five years ago, you\u2019re more than going backwards.\u201d<\/p>\n McGee doesn\u2019t go into too much detail on how to invest in this book, having covered it in the first two, but he does reveal a series of suggested mistakes that include not investing at all, overreacting to market ups and downs, and failing to diversify.<\/p>\n![\"Eoin](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/\/2a5053d1-817f-4c29-a51f-8661682bd832.jpg\")
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