Financial independence means to have freedom to do whatever you want, without being tied to your work, only because you need money.

Money buys you freedom and freedom allows you to do whatever you want because a person cannot be happy unless free.

To be rich, you must obtain assets to ensure your income. To say that we are secured financially you  must have accumulated investments worth about 10 times your annual income. Thus, dividends that come from your investments (average 10%) will bring you the necessary funds.

Here are 12 tips how to obtain assets which will bring you income:

1. Elaborate a proper business plan to make sure that your investments will have the necessary growth and profitability. Preparation of an initial plan that meets your requirements and is consistent with your abilities, is one of the most important first steps, without which maybe you are doomed to failure even before you have started.

This first step of an overall consideration of your strategy is often underestimated by investors, which can ultimately play a bad joke.

2. At the beginning you always decide what will be your level of risk and what investments you will make (short, long, etc.). Here again you do not lean only on personal preferences, but also on opportunities. The shorter way to a goal is very often "the bad way".

3. According to the risk you want to undertake and to the period of your investment, you decide what to include in your portfolio. The selection of assets in your portfolio should be largely consistent with your risk profile in order not to be found in a situation where your investing will last for a very short time, if you have not properly evaluated exactly how much risk you are willing to take .

4. Arrange your investments in 3 categories: low risk, moderate risk and high risk. Here, it is important to distribute the investments in line with requested profitability. Depending on the age and size of investments, the investor is recommended a different ratio of assets placed in different groups.

5. Put different assets in different categories, beginning with the building of the first. You should pick up the leading companies in your sector of choice.

6. When market is highly volatile, stay away from high risk bets. Follow this principle, so as not to turn from an investor with long-term goals into a gambling player, whose end is known to all.

7. Make sure you find the best possible financial adviser. If the one whom you are consulting gives you advice before he has made the calculation of risk in your portfolio, you better find another.

8. Stick to your plan. If this is the right plan for you (all types of assets have moments of fluctuation), it will succeed. Discipline is of great importance for achieving the ultimate goals.

9. "Do not leave all the eggs in one basket". Many people think it is most secure to pay their mortgage and then to buy realty with the purpose of investment. But what will happen if in the meantime property market collapses?

10. Set yourself appropriate terms. If you choose a good type of investments and keep them from 10 to 15 years, you will have enviable success. If you do not have such a long horizon, then a term of at least three to five years can also do the work.

11. Avoid high risk endeavors like too speculative shares, unsafe business ventures, evasion of taxes and proposals that sound too good to be true.

12. It is not a good idea to use loans for your investments. History remembers the experience of 1929 when many people had bought shares on margin. When the market began to fall, they entangled themselves in debt. This is mainly the reason the crisis of 1929 to be so severe. The decline of our stock exchange over the last six months also gave "unenviable lesson" to those, who had invested more than they could afford.

And do not forget that the best way to succeed in you investments is to keep them for a long time (10 or more years). The market will always have periods of growth and periods of decline. But after every 10-15 years, it usually comes out that the market shares have gone up by 15 - 20%.

So the conclusion is: stick to your plans, unless there is not some urgent need to change them.