Why I Want Financial Freedom in My 20s and How I Plan To Achieve It

At the time of writing this blog, I am 23 years old. I still live at my parents house in the bedroom I grew up in. I work 40 hours a week or more at a restaurant as a server and assistant manager.

Despite my current life, I have a big goal of gaining financial freedom in five years. Yes, you heard that right. Five years. By the time I’m 28 years old, I plan to have the financial freedom that most people dream of having when they’re 68.

If you are not familiar with the concept, financial freedom means that you do not rely on a traditional job or paycheck as your sole source of income. Instead, you rely on multiple streams of income from various sources to support your lifestyle. These sources typically come in the form of investments that you’ve made or businesses that you own. In theory, you could never work another day in your life and be well off.

Now some of you may be interested by this idea, but I imagine some of you are also shaking your heads saying things “There’s no way he can do that!” or “How is that even possible?” I can assure that it is possible and yes, I can do it. There’s many reasons why people want to achieve financial freedom, but here are some of mine.

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I am not interested in living by the “status quo”. By this, I mean the kind of life we’ve been told we’re supposed to live since we were children. The life where you have to get good grades in school, get a good job, buy a house, start a family – you get the point. That lifestyle is both dead and outdated. Our education system fails miserably at preparing young people for the world we live in today. Jobs fail to provide adequate wages and security for employees. We can’t even rely on something like Social Security for retirement even though we pay into it. With that kind of outlook, why would anyone want to live by the “status quo” anymore?

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I would rather live the life I want as opposed to the life I’m supposed to live. I don’t want to work just to pay bills. I don’t want to look forward to weekends and dread Mondays. I don’t want to wait until I’m old and gray to finally have time to do things that I enjoy, or only be able to enjoy those things in small doses throughout my life. To me, the only way to truly live is to experience everything life has to offer every day you’re alive. After all, who knows when our last day will be?

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I also want to inspire other people to live the life they want. The idea of financial freedom – or personal freedom in general – is something that I’ve been passionate about for years; however, I only recently realized that I could attain this kind of freedom with careful planning, execution and the right mindset. Although I’m still young, I wish I had come to this conclusion earlier, but we live in a world where everyone tells you to do the opposite. I want to change that narrative and use my experience through this journey to help other people live the life they want.

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So now that I’ve talked about what I want, you’re probably wondering how I will actually achieve any of this. It should go without saying that this will be no easy journey. In my mind, there are three major steps that need to happen for me to achieve financial freedom in five years.

Create multiple sources of passive income

The common denominator for anyone who wants financial freedom is the streams of income they create. A decent part of my income streams will come from investments like stocks or real estate. I’ve actually begun to make some investments in these areas, which I will share in future posts. The other portion will come from the brand I plan to build with this blog. Although blogging is certainly something that can make money, I’d like to use this as a springboard for something much larger as I plan to help other people achieve their dreams.

Adopt a lean and mean mindset with personal finances

The only thing more important than the money you make is the money you spend. You can make millions every year and still be broke if you spend more than you make. Not only will I have to spend less than I make, but I’ll need to be able to invest a decent chunk of my money so it can grow. This requires a “lean and mean” mindset, where I minimize my expenses and come up with innovative or unconventional ways to manage personal finances. Over the past several months, I have adopted a number of smart personal finance habits, like building a savings account or creating a budget. I know that I can continue to adapt as I move forward.

Continuous learning and personal growth

I am not an expert on anything that I’ve talked about in this blog. Not on investing or personal finance or financial freedom. I’m not even an expert on blogging. Perhaps the most important step towards achieving financial freedom will be what I do to learn what I don’t know, as well as my ability to learn from the mistakes I’ve made and correct them. The learning curve throughout this journey will be extraordinary.

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As I mentioned before, this will be no easy journey. In fact, I’d like to go as far to say that this will be one of the most challenging things I will ever do in my entire life. It will require long hours and hard work. It will require stress and frustration. It will require constant perseverance, self discipline and personal sacrifices. It will require failure. But the way I see it, what I do in the next five years will set me up for the next sixty five years of my life (if I live that long). I know that I can build the life I want and I hope that you stick around for the journey.

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Do you want to live the life you want? Are you interested in financial  freedom? Was this article helpful? Comment below & let me know  what you think!