As a free agent, my strongest desire is for my personal freedom. I seek to interact with the world on my terms, spending my time with the people I desire when I desire doing what I want when I want to do it.

People may seek free agency because they desire greater creative leeway than they experienced in Corporate America, maybe they just want to be their own boss or have the flexibility to be with their families more. Whatever the reason for free agency, all free agents must understand the rules of money if they are to be successful in the world as a free agent.

Money is an expression of life force and energy and as such it follows very specific laws...rules and regulations.

Everybody has their own money rules, but these rules may not be the actual rules of money.

As an example someone may have a "rule" about saving. Money follows thought, feelings and actions in that order. This is why a person who has persistent thoughts and feelings about poverty will never learn to live a rich life no matter how many actions they take to save money. In fact, a person whose thoughts are dominated by feelings of poverty and lack may find that no matter how well-intentioned their actions toward money "something" always happens to prevent them from accumulating money.

During my journey as a free agent I have discovered 3 infallible rules of money:

1) You must have a purpose for your money. If you do not have a purpose for money, money will leave your hands and wind up in the hands of a person who does. Yikes!!! The implications of this law are staggering. Subsistence living and paying your bills is not good enough. The people who focus on paying their bills as their highest purpose for money rarely have enough to pay their bills. Your purpose for money must be authentic for you. If you decide your purpose for money is to give a large sum to a charity, but you do not give regular energy in terms of thought, feeling and action to tithing or charitable giving, that purpose is not authentic for you and it is the same as having no purpose for money. That authentic purpose can be as simple as taking your family on vacation or paying off your home. So the law is you must have a purpose for money that is authentic for you.

2) You must pay yourself first. By not paying yourself first, you are saying on a thought, feeling and emotional level that you have no value in your money equation. When I began paying myself first, I went from believing I could not save a dime to saving $50 dollars every 2 weeks. That was quite some time ago. Now, let's just say, things are quite different. You must start somewhere, just to build the belief that you can do it. Then save according to your purpose for money. The more you save, you may find that your purpose for money changes a bit. It may become bigger, broader, that's great! So, rule number 2 is pay yourself first.

3) You must spend consciously. Now what in blazes does that mean? Well it means that when money leaves your hand, you know why it is leaving your hand and you understand its connection to your purpose for money. What that may look like in actual practice is that if your purpose for money is to take your kids to Disney World by the time your oldest is 13, you may make different spending choices each time money leaves your hand. In fact, with that purpose in mind, you may seek higher value propositions for each item you purchase and in situations where you might have spent money in the past you may choose to retain that money in favor of situations that support your purpose for money. Most people spend money on an unconscious level without a purpose or plan. A recent article on CNN money showed that the average American loses track of $50-60 dollars per week. In a nation where the average American has a negative savings rate, that fact is staggering. Taking into account the number of working adults in America that is literally a loss of over $2 billion dollars per year. A quick jump over to Hugh's Calculators shows that consciously putting that "lost" money into a savings account at 5% amounts to $300, 000 dollars over a working lifetime. On an individual level that loss can easily mean the difference between a comfortable retirement or one depending solely on social security. So rule number 3 is spend consciously in total awareness of your purpose for money.

Free Agency is an absolute joy to live for it truly gives each of us the opportunity to live according to our highest creative potential and personal freedom. However to successfully navigate the waters of free agency, you must understand and use the rules of money on your journey.