Achieving financial independence is remarkably simple: make a lot of money, don’t spend a lot of money, and make the difference between what you make and what you spend work as hard as you do.
Believe it or not, a great example of this method is basketball great Shaquille O’Neal.
He spent a million dollars within 30 minutes of joining the league. This led to a call from his banker, chastising him and warning him he would end up broke like so many other NBA athletes if he kept it up.
It requires a certain amount of financial education to pick a qualified financial planner and/or asset manager among the many salespeople out there masquerading as advisors.
That means you cannot spend it all; you must carve out a significant portion of your income and dedicate it toward building wealth by paying off debt, funding retirement accounts, and purchasing income-producing assets.
Frugality is the cornerstone of personal finance. The great thing about frugality, at least when applied both to Shaq and the typical doctor, is that it is all about relative frugality, not absolute frugality.