What is Financial Freedom and How to Achieve it?

Have you ever dreamt about travelling the world? Or pursuing the career of your dreams? Or taking early retirement?
If your answer is “Yes” to all of the questions above, chances are that you have imagined a life of financial freedom.
And you know the best part? You’re not alone. Many like you dream of a life of financial freedom.
In this article, we help you understand what financial freedom means and how you can achieve it. Let’s begin.

What is financial freedom?

It can mean different things to different people. For some, it can mean a lot of wealth so that they don’t have to work anymore while for some it can mean earning enough to fulfil their dreams without feeling overworked. Being financially free depends mainly on your personality, society, lifestyle, values, and goals.

In simple words, being financially free means to be able to manage your finances well enough to live your life the way you want to. It gifts you with these:

• Choice – To make your own life choices without fear
• Security – To ensure a life of stability
• Exploration – To be able to explore new ventures without stress
• Comfort – To not have to give up on your comforts
• Time – To have more control over time

The Key to Unlocking a Future of Financial Freedom

A great starting point to live a financially independent life would be through regular savings or investments. Here again, while savings will ensure you have a steady fund for future expenses, investing ensures that you have a fund that could keep growing.

A great tool to start investing to achieve financial freedom are systemic investment plans (SIPs). SIPs are periodic investments that you can do for any amount, even as small as Rs. 500 per month. All you need to do is select a specific amount to invest (based on your income and expenses), choose a mutual fund scheme, and select a time frame. At regular intervals, the SIP amount will get transferred from your bank account to the scheme of your choice.

You can also choose to add facility of SWP to your SIP ,which can help you make periodic withdrawals from your investment. An investment product that combines SIP and SWP could help make things convenient for you.

SIPs and SWPs are almost like an automated disciplined investment habit that’ll help you create a pool of wealth for yourself over a period of time.

Now, it’s natural to have different goals at different points in life. Some of the common ones many of us have are:

• Helping your children in Pursuing a non-conventional career after college
• Building your start-up during your working life
• Opting for an early retirement
• Living a peaceful, retired life fulfilling your dreams

If you have any such goals and are wondering where to begin, the place to start could be investing in a Freedom SIP.

In this feature, there are there steps: investment (SIP), Transfer (Switch) and Withdrawal (SWP). You first have to choose the investment amount, the number of years you want to run it for (8 / 10 / 12 / 15 years), and the source and target schemes. Your SIP amount goes in the source scheme (equity). Once the period is over, the SWP (systemic withdrawal plan) amount is transferred to the target scheme (debt or hybrid).

While you can go for regular SIPs or SWPs for your retirement goal, Freedom SIPs are crafted to meet specific short, medium or long-term term goals along the way. It’s agoal-based planning solution to help you become financially independent at any stage of life.

ICICI Prudential Mutual Fund’s Freedom SIP is a great facility to consider when you’re starting your journey to financial freedom. It helps you choose the right scheme based on your goal and risk appetite and helps build the healthy habit of long-term investing. The scheme is devised to help you meet your goals such as following your passions, travelling the world, or taking early retirement, without worry.

You can learn more about the scheme here:www.icicipruamc.com/icici-prudential-freedom-sipp


Disclaimer: ICICI Prudential Freedom SIP is an optional feature that allows initial investments through SIP, switch to another scheme after a pre-defined tenure and SWP post that. The SWP will be processed either till Dec 2099 or till the units are available in the target scheme, whichever is earlier. This feature does not in any way give assurance of the performance of any of the Schemes of ICICI Prudential Mutual Fund or provide any guarantee of withdrawals through SWP mode. Freedom SIP allows investors to switch the SIP investments to a target scheme, and post completion of the SIP tenure & monthly SWP will continue from the target scheme. Please read the terms and conditions in the application form before investing or visit www.iciciprumf.com. This facility should not be associated or confused with Freedom SWP; the two are separate facilities provided by ICICI Prudential AMC Limited.

Mutual fund investments are subject to market risks, read all scheme related documents carefully.