I didn't feel financially free when I was $77,000 in debt. I was earning over $100,000 at my day job, but I still felt behind.
However, once I started to read articles on passive income, compound interest, and getting out of debt, I immediately knew I would free myself and my family.
That was back in June 2019 on our vacation to the country of Turkey. My wife and I started planning to retire to Turkey and knew we needed to bring our own income.
Figuring out the simplicity of passive income. I remember thinking, "could we live in Turkey without working in the Turkish economy?"
Also, I knew I didn't want to work at all. I wanted to make all my money from a laptop, but not by checking in with a job. I dreamed of being a free spirit.
One of my first internet searches was "earning money without working?" Google returned the term "passive income."
From there, the rest was history. For the duration of that vacation, I spent every morning researching all the types of passive income.
I opened my first high-yield savings account (with Discover). I opened my first brokerage account (with Wells Fargo) and bought some Series "I" Bonds from TreasuryDirect.
A man on a mission. I became a man on a mission, which paid off quickly. By the end of 2023, my wife and I will both walk away from our jobs.
We will be financially free, and we can focus on becoming rich (Robert Kiyosaki). Reflecting over the last four years, I understand I became financially free in June 2019.
As soon as I made my finances my top priority, I became free. After that vacation, it was easy to stop spending, using credit cards, and wasting resources.
The world wants you to be a consumer. You are supposed to spend until your heart's content, go into debt, and keep spending until the creditors call.
They want you to work until you are 80 years old because earned income is the highest form of taxes for the government.
Set yourself free. I started my journey by reading articles on saving and investing. However, my mission went into overdrive once I started reading books.
The first book I read on my journey was "I Will Teach You To Be Rich" by Ramti Sethi. This book helped me finish paying off my credit cards quickly.
The next book I read was "Rich Dad, Poor Dad" by Robert Kiyosaki. I followed by reading 5-7 more Robert Kiyosaki books, easily making him the most influential author in my life.
Robert Kiyosaki made such an impact on me because his work just makes sense to me. As a hard-working family man with 20 years of military service, I was still struggling financially.
When I read his words in September 2020, I could relate to him when he spoke of the broken system. He said working hard for money would never set you free—I agreed.
Changing your mindset. Working hard for money will not set you free because your efforts go into someone else's pocket.
The harder you work for someone else, the richer they become. They create a corporate ladder to give you the illusion of growth and prosperity.
However, the more money you make, the more money you spend. Saving 5% toward your 401K will not give you the results you seek—you must make a drastic change.
The most significant change you'll need to make is valuing your time over money. Time is the most valuable resource on Earth, and you should fight to get your time back.
The purpose of having a job is to invest enough money to set you free. Once you can control your time, you can retire and focus on doing something great.
Many ways to set yourself free. Robert Kiyosaki loves using leverage to expedite his returns and set himself free much quicker than the average person.
However, if you are a more conservative person with a family in tow (like me), you can still use multiple options to free yourself.
My wife and I used renting rooms, home equity, working extra jobs, living below our means, dividend investing, and starting a business to set us free.
The main risk we took was investing in the markets; however, there are no risky investments, only risky investors (Robert Kiyosaki). This means that you must perform your due diligence before investing.
Most people want to work their day job, get a hot stock tip over the water cooler, drop $1,000 into the markets, and flip that into $50,000 overnight. Sadly, it doesn't work this way.
Start freeing yourself today. To free yourself, you want to start printing money. By creating an infinite return, you'll have something in life that prints money you can invest.
The simplest way to create an infinite return is by renting rooms or house hacking. Let's say you rent a space for $800/month.
Most people would spend that $800 on something frivolous, but that doesn't lead to freedom. Instead, you invest that money into something that produces more money, say dividend-paying stocks.
If you do this type of investing printed money long enough, you'll set yourself free. And it moves fast, by the way.
My wife and I went from -$77,000 to +$300,000 in less than four years. We can now rent rooms for $2,000/month and have $1,800/month in dividend income. That's $3,800/month in passive income to set us free.
Conclusion. Most people lack the disciple required to become financially free. You must have spending, budgeting, and investing discipline while getting your family on board.
I'll retire from the military at age 42, and my wife will be 39. We will be free to pursue other passions at our leisure.
I created a writing business because I wanted to earn my money from a web browser. I wake up at midnight (it's 2:08 am now) to work on my business and publish books.
Once I retire, I will continue to work throughout the magic hours because it frees up my time during the beautiful daylight. This work schedule represents freedom to me.
Since I am currently still working, I have to wake up and go to the office. I'll sit there for 10 hours and come back exhausted from solving someone else's problems. I want my time back.
My wife and I did the work to free ourselves from our debt bondage and consumerist nature. We can work in our garden, drink coffee, and watch the sunrise (and sunset) together for the rest of our lives.
It all started by freeing ourselves mentally first, then working to free ourselves financially. Financial freedom is about time, not money. Good Luck!
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