5 Tips for Finding Freedom
By: Future Freedom Finders
Tags: Minimalism, Budget Travel, Financial Freedom, Sustainable Living, Financial Independence

Photo by: Nita on pexels

Hi there Freedom Finders! We are Natalie and Liam, and we are Future Freedom Finders. We share tips and tricks towards achieving a wholesome financial wellbeing. We tackle how we are setting ourselves up for financial independence through a sustainable lifestyle and making healthy financial decisions everyday. In this post, we share our top 5 tips for achieving sustainable freedom.

1. Financial Freedom

Let’s go ahead and get this one out of the way because yes, money is important, but it isn’t everything and is only a piece of how we are achieving freedom. We are believers in saving, investing, and living frugally, but the caveat being that we still believe you should still enjoy your life RIGHT NOW and believe there should be a balance with the amount of money you save and invest while still being able to take that summer holiday or enjoy that winter escape. A lot of those who have achieved financial independence will advise saving up to 70% of your income, but the reality is, that is not sustainable for most people; instead, we believe you should be able to reap some of the rewards of your hard work RIGHT NOW. There are plenty of ways to travel on a budget so stay tuned as we will circle back to our tips and tricks for traveling on a budget!

2. Time Management

Time management is not something most people think of when they think about freedom. For us, we treasure a healthy work-life balance, but that does not mean we are not working hard to achieve our freedom. Although it can be very tempting at times to sit on the couch and binge watch Netflix, we work very hard at managing our time, setting realistic goals, and taking small steps towards finding our future freedom. We will expand on this more later, but a few quick tips for achieving time management is to make a list of your goals, prioritize those goals, stay organized, accomplish your most important goals at the beginning of the day, and then reward yourself at the end of the day with that new Netflix show you’ve been dying to watch. By prioritizing your goals and tackling them first thing in the day, you will feel very accomplished and will enjoy that long awaited show so much more!

3. Avoid Excess

This is a challenging concept for many people, especially here in America where the mentality is the bigger the better and where promotions mean bigger houses and more expensive cars. Things we have been working on a lot the past couple of years are downsizing our material things, not buying in excess, and working towards living small and sustainably. Once you start to purge your material things, you start to feel a weight lifted and you realize how much money you have been wasting! So instead of dumping that bonus or pay raise into a bigger house or more expensive car, you can save or invest that money so that you can find your freedom!

4. Declutter the Mind

This may be the hardest step towards achieving freedom. People often associate freedom with time and money, but we think in order to really maximize your freedom, you need to declutter the mind, as well. Stop worrying about the end goal of when you will finally reach financial freedom or when you can finally live a life of travel. You will end up wishing away these precious moments right now. Manage your time and make realistic goals towards the end goal that you can accomplish right now so that you can feel yourself getting close to that milestone without wishing away your life. Avoid excess and material things that do not mean anything at the end of the day and things that are prohibiting you from reaching your goals. The more things we possess, the more we crave, and the more occupied our minds are on the material world. Get outside and take steps towards letting go of the material world.

5. Stop Comparing Yourself to Others

You are on your journey and your journey alone. Finding freedom is not one size fits all and your experience is yours and yours alone. Find a balance that works for you and give yourself room for trial and error. Consider reducing your presence on social media. Excessive use of social media can often times give us false expectations that leads to serious FOMO and comparing our lives to the photo somebody just posted (remember that photo is a teeny fraction of their whole story). Welcome advice from others but recognize that those are simply tools to help you along your journey as you find your freedom.