Wouldn’t it be nice to win a million dollars? Well, if you believe the Lotto people, it would change your life so that your dreams came true. Of course, that’s bullshit.

Watching one of the weekly lotto draws on the telly last night, I thought how many people there must be who are glued to this advertisement, same time, each and every week. It hit me that there are literally millions of Aussies who spend more time every week trying to win the “big one” than they do sorting out their finances. This doesn’t make much sense to me.

Think about it for a minute – how many people do you know who have played Lotto (well, I say play, but it’s not really a fun game if you lose every week is it)? Now think about how many people you know who’ve won. Personally I know a large number of people who have lost a lot of money and one person who won an amount that was equal to her mortgage. She was smart and paid it off. And there was a former colleague of mine who correctly picked four or five lotto numbers and ended up winning less than the cost of the ticket.

If all those yet-to-win-lotto players (let’s call them losers) were to spend a little bit of time every week dedicated to their personal finances, they could start to change their situation to the point where playing lotto wouldn’t matter. It doesn’t take a full on dedication to watching the markets and studying a real estate website to start to get ahead. Just the desire to improve your circumstances, the right knowledge and a small amount of time regularly devoted to it.

And if you swap buying lotto tickets for getting your financial life organised, you’ll end up saving a truckload of cash that you can spend the rest of your life.

“They say the best in life is free,

But if you don’t pay then you don’t eat.” – Another Day, Bryan Adams

One of the best things in life are memories. Growing up listening to Bryan Adams was something I look back on and remember enjoying (well, at least up to Waking Up The Neighbours, then I reckon he kinda went backwards). Memories cost nothing. As a matter of fact, a lot of things don’t have a cost associated with them.

Depending on your circumstances, you won’t pay a cent for love, sex, oxygen, warmth, laughter and cuddles. Yeah, there are situations where you can pay for all of those, but generally speaking they are all free.

If you get the feeling that this blog is going to turn into an advertisement for Visa, you’ve got the wrong end of the stick.

It might be a bit cocky to refer to Financial Freedom For Gens X And Y as one of the best things in life, but bugger it, I’m gonna be cocky. ‘Cause now it’s free. Yep, that’s right, the $25 subscription fee that we used to charge for a sign up to access the course on our site has been dropped. There is no need to even send us your email address so that we can send chapters to your inbox every week ‘cause it doesn’t work like that – the whole course is now available and open to all.

Unlike other places where you can find information on money, Financial Freedom For Gens X and Y does not carry advertising. Nor does it attempt to persuade you to sign up to something for an annual fee or a product that we receive kickbacks from. It’s fair dinkum free.

Of course if, after going through the site you reckon you have saved yourself a load of money and that it was well worth your time reading through it, you still have the option to throw 5 or 10 bucks my way. After all, running a website doesn’t come for free.