What is freedom?
1.
the state of being free or at liberty rather than in confinement or under physical restraint: He won his freedom after a retrial.
2.
exemption from external control, interference, regulation, etc.
3.
the power to determine action without restraint.
So… Are you free? Most likely not! And not independent either since they are synonyms!
And do you want to be? I bet you do! For one I can’t make you free, but I can probably point you in the right direction!
Starting out with independence
We are humans, as such we are born dependant. We rely on others (most times our parents) for everything, from food to protection.
In turn, we usually have to follow some rules imposed by our caretakers, which limits our so called "freedom". These limitations can be upsetting, and most people want to lead their own lives. Usually the first step is to move out of our parent’s home. Sometimes this is not so simple as moving out to college…
Here in Portugal, it is quite common to stay at the parent’s home for College, as the country isn’t so big and the Universities are in the main cities. This leads to some students not finding a place for themselves until mid 20s, some even 30s. I am 21 years and study at my hometown, so I’m not leaving home until ~22-23…
But this is just the first big step…
Jobs
For all it’s worth, studying fits here as well, albeit being "softer" and less monotonous than a normal job, at least where I study!
You are just out of your parent’s house, free at last! But alas… You need money to live, and here comes your next prison: your job!
In a job you are time and physically restrained, you have to be somewhere for a set amount of ours, doing a predetermined task, or even doing nothing… But you have to be there!
Lets assume you have a job you like (which is not necessarily true). Have you never had a day where you just don’t feel like going to work? Maybe that happens once a month… Maybe even once a week! I hope it doesn’t happen everyday!
If you are totally happy with your job, congratulations! If you don’t like what you are doing, or you just don’t like being stuck somewhere… Why are you working? The answer is most likely:
Money
Money is our biggest prison. We have to work to earn it, then we are more or less careful how we spend it, and we go through the cycle again and again…
The problem about money is that we are usually only shown one option to earn it… "A job". And there is a path we should follow, called a "career".
As we have seen a job is very time consuming, usually tiring, boring, repetitive, etc.
What you are looking for, is probably:
Financial freedom
This point is reached when you don’t have to earn another cent in your life… But most people don’t even consider it! They achieve this when they retire, and they get a "pension" from the government, which they paid for all their lives anyway.
The beauty is that there is a finite amount of money, that if you had today you could keep under the couch (or in a bank if you so chose), and be settled for the rest of your life. This amount goes down every year, as you have one year less to pay for…
And this amount depends mainly on how much do you want to live for the rest of your life! If you want to live a lavish life with big houses, sports cars and the like, of course it will be enormous! If you don’t, maybe you’d be surprised in a good way!
To achieve that number without following a normal job is the tricky part. Probably you are getting paid less than your job is worth, for example. After all, the company you work for probably keeps profits… A part of those profits is money from your work that you didn’t receive! This case is hard to fix…
Investing, in real estate or otherwise, starting your own business, making money from skills like writing or singing are, like many others, various ways you can step towards financial freedom… I won’t get into the specifics of each, but one big money maker is SAVING money, it’s incredible how much 5 minutes on google before each significant purchase can save you!
Just keep in mind one very famous quote…
With freedom comes responsibility!
João
Fantastic blog! I actually love how it’s easy on my eyes as well as the info are well written. I am wondering how I can be notified whenever a new post has been made. I have subscribed to your rss feed which ought to do the trick! Have a nice day!