This is part five in my series “I Studied Money for 10,000 Hours, Here’s What Actually Matters”
Part one is here, part two here, part three here, and part four here.
1. What I believe financial freedom actually is now
One sentence:
Financial freedom is a reality where money does not define your freedom.
Most people think that financial freedom is how much money they have in their bank account. It’s based on a number. Once they get to a certain number, then they’ll be financially free.
I don’t believe that at all.
I believe that you can be just as free right now, financially, as anyone else in the world.
That comes from the place of, “I am free no matter how much money I have. Money does not determine whether or not I am free. I can have $10 or I can have $10 billion. I’m free.”
That’s the base layer of it.
There are additional layers of it that are more about the confines of your material experience with money and relate to your freedom to go on a vacation or do certain things.
Again, I’m all for earning more money, but shift into the reality of, “Okay, I can use money as a tool to shape my experience, and that is directly related to how much value I’m providing.”
Let’s see how much value you can provide. Not from the place of “I have to” but rather, from a place of curiosity, experimentation, wonder, and excitement. The latter leads to a more enjoyable money experience, and, I would assert, a greater providing of value. Which leads to more material success, more money in the bank account, and then maybe you can buy a bigger house or buy season tickets to your favorite sports team, if that’s what your heart wants to do.
But none of those things are what grants you freedom, financially or otherwise. You’re free whether or not you have season tickets.
But you can use money as a tool from the place of freedom to create and shape your experience with money and your reality in general. Which is quite fun — exploring and discovering how much value you can provide is an exciting adventure.
There are different levels of financial freedom, but most people never get down to the base level. They’re always chasing money and chasing a number in a bank account, and then, if and when they get there, they don’t feel free. Why? Because they still have the same internal wiring that led them to the feeling of, “I don’t have enough money” in the first place.
It always feels like financial freedom is eluding them, because they’re coming from the place of, “I don’t have financial freedom until xyz.”
They make financial freedom conditional. They make it external. They make it circumstantial.
If that’s what you’re signaling to the universe, that’s going to be your experience with money. Even if you double your income. Because doubling your income hasn’t necessarily changed your internal relationship with money.
When you change your internal relationship with money, you can become financially free and the number in your bank account can be the exact same as it was (notice your internal resistance to that definition/reality of financial freedom).
It’s not about how much money you have.
It’s about your internal views, beliefs, and relationship to money, and coming from the place of freedom as you relate to and experience money.
That is the true creation of financial freedom.
Part six coming soon :)