Ever thought about having kids, or traveling the world? Ever wanted to go to the beach on a Thursday morning or hiking through the trees on a Tuesday afternoon? Have you ever wanted to take time with friends in Italy midweek instead of working? That's what financial freedom buys for us. A life without work can be meaningless, but life full of what you like doing is meaningful. We're here to serve ourselves, others and worldly needs and wants. When we are financially free we can move on from self-serving by working for a pay check to philanthropic activities, whatever that might mean to you. For Tony Robbins, it means releasing a recent book, which is really an advertisement for financial services, for free. Your business can be a non-profit. However, before you spend a life of servitude without pay, first consider that it is possible to have a life of service and success. By taking risks and providing valuable service we can prosper and pay our community and our people dividends.

To be financially free we need to move from acquiring money by spending our time to acquiring money through holding assets.

Here's a few steps to get you closer to where you want to be:

  1. Work and pay your debts (credit cards, student loans, car payments and similar).
  2. Save 20% of your income, and invest in the U.S. stock market.
  3. Ideally looking for a fiduciary service to advise you for a small fee.
  4. Or, investing in index funds with low fees.
  5. My favorite is Vangaurd (VOO) because it will track the S&P 500.
  6. Buy larger assets.
  7. These are homes, investment properties, businesses, store fronts.
  8. These help deliver income to you monthly.
  9. Hire someone to manage your assets and move on to the world of the financially free.

Once you're there that's it! You can now spend time on family, travel and the greater life experiences. When we're free we can spend time on what really matters to us -- sharing in the joy that is life as well as changing the lives of the people we love and sharing our learnings from along the path, which makes it easier for future generations to experience that same level of success.