Here’s another point to remember in becoming financially independent: It’s hard to get rich quickly. It’s easy to get rich slowly. It doesn’t happen overnight. With conservative investments, it takes a while. It takes discipline to keep adding value to your future, a little every month. It takes time to build your fortune and become wealthy.

There’s a saying about investing: “Time, not timing.” It takes time. If playing the stock market is what you do, then you know that timing is a whole different ball game. But for the average person, it’s time.

A study was done a while back that analyzed stock market investments. The study took two scenarios into consideration. In the first scenario, stocks were bought at the very worst possible time and sold at the very worst possible time. Bough high and sold low. And after 40 years, the average return was around 10 percent. Scenario one dealt with time.

In the second scenario, stocks were analyzed over a 10-year period. Stocks were purchased at the best possible time and sold at the best possible time. After 10 years, the average return was… about 10 percent. The second scenario dealt with timing. So timing might not be all it’s cracked up to be.

Be patient in building your financial independence. It will come small steps at a time. It’s hard to be patient sometimes, but it’s just like achieving your goals: It happens one step at a time.