A Roadmap To Your True Financial Independence - Part 1 - Generating A Passive Income For Yourself

Are you searching for a way to true financial independence for yourself and your family?
Aren't we all? ;)
Are you tired of being "trapped" in the "rat race", working day in and day out to earn a paycheck that just covers your immediate and short-term expenses?
Do you feel like you just aren't making any positive progress in this way towards your true financial independence?
Do you, therefore, believe that there *must* be a better way? And are you ready to take advantage of this better way when you see it?
In these articles, I will share with you what we believe is this "better way" and provide you with a roadmap that you may customize to your situation and needs and use for yourself to achieve your true financial independence as soon as possible! :)
In a "nut shell", here is what we believe to be the simple roadmap, listed in order of importance, to your financial independence:
1) Build and grow a truly passive income stream!
2) Generate additional revenue with commercial-off-the-shelf (COTS) products (and/or others' services)
3) Use the money you earn from working, e.g. your "day job" and/or business(es), to further fuel your investments in and accelerate the returns on these investment from #1 and #2 above.
In this article, I will address Step #1, which is the one that we feel is the critical success factor and the most important "piece in the puzzle" to achieving and sustaining your true financial independence as soon as possible! :)
We believe that the "key" to true financial independence is to have a steady, and preferably growing, source of truly "passive income".
So ... What is a "passive income"?
A truly passive income is any source of income wherein you continue to make money without having to expend any further time or effort to maintain the source or level of this income.
You may probably already see that when you have a truly passive income that generates sufficient funds to cover your necessary monthly expenses then you are truly financially independent, since this means that you no longer have to perform any further work to earn the money you need to live on, right?! :)
So ... How do you get to a passive income that covers your expenses?
Well, like Robert T. Kiyosaki, author of the "Rich Dad, Poor Dad" books, T. Harv Ecker, author of "The Millionaire Mind", and so many other "guru's" will tell you, the key to a truly passive income is making Your Money Work hard for You! Rather than you working hard for your money! Right?
So ... How do you get your money working hard for you?
Well, firstly, you have to have some money that you can put to work for yourself, right?
And unless you are lucky enough to win the lottery or happen to inherit (or find ;)) a large sum of money, then the chances are that you will have to start with what you can afford out of what you currently have saved and/or from your earnings and grow it from there, right?

Michael S. DeVries is the Moderator of The Virtual Consulting Discussion List (http://www.TheVCF.com/vcdl.phtml) and Principal of The Virtual Consulting Firm (http://www.TheVCF.com). Sit Back, Relax and Make More Money with Less Effort than you ever thought possible! Find out how Now at: http://www.thevcf.com/ECEXServices.phtml