What is the most important item needed to achieve financial independence?

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Good question!

You need to model and learn from people that are successful.
It is important to read books to get a good general education. You can rapidly gain exposure to a lot of ideas. The problem with reading books though is some people spend a lifetime studying and never take action.

So, it is good to read books, but you should not let yourself fall into the trap of never taking action with the information you find in books.

You need a mentor to help you learn how to invest. The way you are going about it now, is good you are starting to try and figure out what to do when you know you need help. Asking questions is the first step, contacting a mentor is your next step.

Mentees come to me not knowing anything with a shiny object syndrome where they think that X or Y investment strategy their friend is doing or someone on YouTube is perfect.

These mentees often don’t know the basics of what is the difference between bond, equity, notes, etc. They can’t describe the relationship between interest rates and bond prices or how to evaluate risk through proper due diligence. All these skills can be learned.

When I mentor young and older entrepreneurs I spend time listening to them to understand how they think about business and where the gaps in their knowledge are. Each of them has weak points and these weak points are what I focus on. I don’t teach them what they want to know, I teach them what they need to know.

Many of them are not even aware of the massive gaps in their knowledge and how it will create problems for them later as an entrepreneur. I think it is irresponsible mentorship to just teach the one thing that a mentee wants to learn and not correct their weak points and mistakes.

Once you have this personal financial education you will know what options are available and be able to make intelligent and informed decisions.

Yes, it is not easy. It takes a commitment of time and money to learn how to invest. You can either pay money to a mentor that can help you or you can pay money by trying deals without having someone help you and losing money - either way you will pay money for your education.

You either will pay by learning from experience losing money on real investments or by learning from an experienced mentor. The most important thing is to keep a positive attitude and never quit.

I hope that helps and good luck with your investing!

Benjamin Z Miller
www.benjaminzmiller.com