My Blueprint for Financial Freedom in 2024
Ok, I’ll say it upfront, if you have come to this article to find the secret sauce to riches you’ll be sadly mistaken.
This is my journey and that will not resonate with everyone. It should not resonate with everyone.
This is about how I see the world and what “financial freedom” represents to me.
So where am I coming from?
Personal finance is, well, personal
For years I felt that talking openly about money was like disclosing sexual partners. Too large a number was tasteless in polite company. Too few notches was embarrassing; you wouldn’t share it with your mates.
I’ve moved on from that. To embrace the idea of financial freedom more fully, I’ve got to be open to it:
I like the idea of making more money. There, I’ve said it.
Still, it’s important to define it. For me, it’s more about security. None of (well, less of) the keeping up with the Joneses or my ego.
My About Me will give an idea of why that’s the case.
Sure, I’ve got a random value I would like to shoot for. But it’s just to provide a signpost.
At the end of the day, my financial freedom vision is about having enough money to do what I want, when I want. It’s about buying more time.
Starting from scratch
Tons of people will go out in search of financial freedom, without actually knowing their starting point. They don’t know where they are.
I’ve done a ton of self-reflection. I know I need to do more.
But I know I’m pointing in the right direction (for me).
So time to do an audit of your life. Your career aspirations and security, your skills and your desires in life.
And, of course, your current finances — too few have a proper handle on how to manage their money:
That will shape what kind of journey you’ll go on. Can you reach financial freedom purely through your job? Do you need to generate extra income?
Can your version of financial freedom be met simply by managing your expectations? Who said it had to be about more money?
You need to know what you’re shooting for.
Generating more income
I plan to augment my salary with other income streams to move me forward.
And while there are so many ways to pick up extra cash, some move the needle more than others.
My suggestion would be to keep it simple. And take simple seriously.
For me, that means taking a good hard look at previous side hustles to see whether I can use them in my journey. To see what worked, what can be earned, and what is sustainable.
Below is part of my adventure:
If you’re new to side hustles I would recommend the following podcasts:
And there’s the excellent accompanying book to Side Hustle Nation, Buy Buttons, written by the host Nick Loper. Check it out here.
Here’s a link on how to approach freelance writing:
Ultimately, you should do an audit on all your skills to see what you can bring to the market. Maybe it’s writing, teaching, driving, baking — understand what skills you have.
If you don’t feel you have any skills that can earn you money, you can always learn some. Once you have the skills you have to learn how to apply them at scale.
So I plan to work with what I have and build from there. That means returning to my favorite freelance sites: Upwork, Fiverr and PeoplePerHour. That means using my portfolio of work to earn bigger and better, leveraging my network for referrals and collaborations.
And that means trying to turn the services I provide into more products (e.g., ebooks, courses and training material).
I also need to upgrade my marketing skills.
However good I think my coaching/writing/career and finance knowledge is, there are thousands out there with the same.
A good marketing strategy will help me stand out in a sea of “the similar”.
I’ll be checking out marketing courses on Udemy, eDX and Coursera for that.
But just a reminder — it’s not easy:
Medium — a core part of the story?
No, that’s not my route to financial freedom. Not even close.
I do feel it is a safe space to experiment. A place to nurture my voice and brand myself for other endeavors.
Do I want to make money out of it? Hell, yeah.
I’m not going to pretend money isn’t part of it — otherwise, all my articles would have been freely available a long time ago. But it’s not ONLY about money.
Medium allows me to say and do what I want, unlike a lot of freelance writing. It will also hopefully keep me honest — it’s all here in writing for me to look back on.
Mindfulness is relevant
This isn’t meant to sound woo-woo. But I honestly see mindfulness as critical to my financial freedom journey.
It’s about appreciating what’s right in front of me. Not fear about the future or regret about the past. It’s about the now.
It’s exactly what The Power of Now talks about — my mindfulness bible.
This might not be the tricks and tips you were hoping to find. But at the end of the day, financial freedom is about peace. Money is only part of the story.
That’s why you really do need to know what game you are playing:
Let’s see how this plays out
In a year’s time, I may look back and laugh at all this.
And true, the blueprint still needs fine-tuning, a more defined structure, a bit more market research and an action plan.
But without the focus and intent I’m bringing to the idea, and the ability to iterate along the way, I’ll end up spinning wheels in 2024.
Or as Courtney C Stevens has said:
If nothing changes, nothing changes. If you keep doing what you’re doing, you’re going to keep getting what you’re getting. You want change, make some.
So here goes my journey to financial freedom. You should come along too.
You may find affiliate links within this article.