Remember to remember your power - everything you've learned with these steps to financial freedom - and put it all into practice everyday, because in the grand scheme of life, you'll never really know how things are meant to turn out until they turn out.

Every portfolio benefits from bonds; they provide a cushion when the stock market hits a rough patch. But avoiding stocks completely could mean your investment won't grow any faster than the rate of inflation.

Even if you were to fall into extreme financial hardship and file for bankruptcy, you need to understand that your student loan debt will not be discharged in bankruptcy. It is the Velcro of all debts.

If you're not staying on top of your money, you are putting your financial well-being at risk.

If you do not have at least an eight-month emergency fund, and you think there's a probability you could loose your job - and it's not just losing your job; you could be in a car accident, get sick - continue to pay the minimum on your credit card every month. Everything beyond that needs to go to establish an emergency fund. And if you have an emergency fund saved, then fund your retirement account before paying down credit card debt.

The mind gives us thousands of ways to say no, but there's only one way to say yes, and that's from the heart.

I have come to think that money is very much like a person, and it will respond when you treat it as you would a cherished friend - never fearing it, pushing it away, pretending it doesn't exist, or turning away from its needs, never clutching it so hard that it hurts. ... if you tend it like the living entity it is, then it will flourish, grow, take care of you for as long as you need it.