Here’s My 5-Step Financial Freedom Plan – What’s Yours? (2024)

Do you lay in bed at night thinking about money? Do you get stressed on Sunday evening knowing you have to go back to work Monday morning?

Maybe you do, maybe you don’t. It really doesn’t matter if you’re a financial rock star or on the financial rocks – we all want the same thing: financial freedom.

But what’s stopping you?

I was reviewing my finances today and thinking about how much harder I’m going to need to work to hit that financial freedom mark. Right now, I’m not even close. So I started mapping out a plan to accelerate my journey.

Here’s what I need to do:

1. Earn More Money

If you can’t save or invest a decent chunk of change each month, then you have one of two problems. You either 1) spend too much money or 2) don’t make enough money.

I’ve got my expenses under control, so now I need to ramp up my earnings.

Luckily, I’ve taken on more work over the past couple of months and I will soon start to see the financial benefits. This should leave me with at least $500 extra per month to save or invest.

2. Build Passive Income Sources

Ever since I’ve gotten into personal finance, passive income has been on my mind.

Last year, I started buying dividend stocks – but now I’m looking to be a little more creative. You see, with stocks you have to put down a bunch of money to earn anything decent. For me, that’s not possible yet.

Instead, I’m more interested in earning other sources of passive income. I’m currently working on an ebook and I’d like to have around five books available on Amazon in the next year. I’m also saving for a possible investment property.

Both of these would only be considered semi-passive income because there’s some work involved. But these are the most appealing options to me.

3. Pay Cash for a House

I live in the rural Midwest where homes are fairly cheap. Ideally, I’d like to have a house on at least five acres of woods; I want a mini farm where I can raise my children and I want to have my forever home. At the moment, properties like these are going for $250,000 to $300,000.

I’m going to put my passive income earnings into a separate saving account for a house. I’d like to have enough money to either pay cash or put a sizeable down payment on a house in the next five years.

4. Double My Retirement Contributions

Right now, I’m only adding $100 per month to my IRA. (But as I said, I’ve also been saving for an investment property and buying dividend stocks in a personal investing account.)

Since I’m starting at such a small number, I think it’d be feasible to double my retirement contributions every year for at least the next three years. After that, I’ll have to reevaluate.

5. Stay focused While Still Enjoying Life

In the grand scheme of financial freedom, one of the most important aspects to me is that I enjoy living my life.

I’m not going to skip out on every single purchase and start hoarding pennies in hopes of “making it” someday. Instead, I want to live my life to the fullest TODAY while still maintaining focus on my goal of financial freedom.

Here’s my financial freedom plan. Do you have one as well? Share it in the comments!

Tagged as: Lifestyle, Motivation, Retirement

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