Article: The first step towards financial freedom is determining where you stand now. You'll have to take stock of your finances and assets to get a sense of where you need to go from here to have more financial security. Figure out your net worth, which is essentially an honest assessment of your current wealth. Tally up everything you own and its value. This includes obvious things, like your house and your car, but think outside the box as well. Do you have any valuable collectables? Do you own any property? Once you've tallied up your assets, add your annual income, as well as any additional money you make each year through side work or investments. List all your debts. This can include credit card debt, your mortgage, and any loans. Subtract your debts from the first number. The number you have now represents your net worth. You'll want to figure out how much you're spending each month and how much income you have each month. This will give you a sense of where you could cut back on expenses. If you're vigilant about tracking expenses, you'll be surprised at how much money you spend extraneously. Keep a small journal for a month and write down where you're spending your money or use an app like Mint to help track your expenses. Keep track of any bills you pay, monthly rent or mortgage, insurance payments, and so on. You'll also want to record your income. Record the amount, frequency, and timing of all sources of income. You should also add any extra expenses. Do you subscribe to any magazines or online services? Add that to your list. On a day-to-day basis, write down how much money you spend on things like shopping, eating out, recreational activities, and so on. You may be shocked when you tally your expenses by category at the end of the month. You may be spending a lot more money on things like eating out and going out for drinks than you anticipated. You'll want to set some financial goals for yourself. You need to have a clear-cut plan for the future if you want to become financially independent. Try to think ahead. Where do you want to be in 10 years? 15 years? How can you go about investing and saving your money to make sure you can achieve these goals? Keep realistic goals. For example, you can strive to have a job that pays well and has benefits. You can also strive to maintain your current standard of living into retirement. Write down a series of goals, ranked in terms of important. Include both short term goals ("I want to cut down monthly spending by $300 this month) and long term goals ("I want to start a retirement fund so I can retire comfortably in the next 20 years."). When it comes to saving, you should start right now. A good goal is to set aside 10 to 15% of what you earn each month in savings. Getting into the habit of saving money can really help your longterm financial prospects. You can do this either on a weekly or monthly basis. If you have online banking, you can put away a certain amount of each paycheck in savings. You can also talk to your bank about automatic transfers and have 10 to 15% of each paycheck automatically transferred to your savings account each month. Automatic withdrawals are a good idea. Many people struggle to set aside money and feel tempted to spend everything they have.

What is a summary?
Figure out your finances at the moment. Understand your cash flow. Set a series of financial goals. Aim to save 10 to 15% of what you earn.